Fate Fractured Prism
by The Devil Z
Summary: Set ten years after the events of UBW in an alternate universe where Shirou and Rin have failed to put an end to the Fuyuki Grail Wars, a Sixth Grail War begins under the oppressive reign by zealots from the Mage's Association. This time, our heroes find themselves against the mightiest Servants ever to be summoned in a Grail War. [AU sequel to F/SN UBW]
1. Chapter 1

**Fate/Fractured Prism**

 **\- Chapter 1 -**

* * *

Emiya Shirou darted down the corridors of the Clock Tower, shielding his eyes from the plumes of fire that erupted from its walls with his right hand. His left was tightly interlaced between Tohsaka Rin's slender fingers that were covered in soot. The couple raced for the roof as the flames of civil war engulfed the Mage's Association.

 _I am the bone of my sword_

 _Steel is my body and fire is my blood_

A longbow, dark as obsidian materialized in his hand. Shirou wheeled around and aimed his bow at the burning corridor behind him and was forced to let go of Rin's hand.

"Shirou! What are you - "

"She's coming. I'm going to try to slow her down - "

"No, we're going to do this toge- "

An explosion rocked the upper levels of the Clock Tower, spewing fragments of rubble across the flames. Their assailant was a tall woman with long dark hair, glowing Celtic runes hovered in the air around her like the numbers on a clock. Her scarlet eyes glowed brighter than the flames around her and in her right hand was a long demonic spear, dyed red like the woman's eyes, such that it was impossible to make out the blood on its barbed blade.

 _I have created over a thousand blades_

 _Unaware of loss, nor aware of gain_

 _Withstood pain to create many weapons, waiting for one's arrival_

A simple black arrow appeared in Shirou's hand. He nocked and drew the arrow he traced back as far as the long bow would allow.

"The helicopter is here. Go. Now!"

"Damn it!" scowled Rin under her breath but ran up the stairs towards the roof.

 _I have no regrets. This is the only path_

He loosed the arrow and it whizzed straight towards its unsuspecting victim with such power and velocity, it would have ended any Magus' life in that instant. But the woman reacted with inhumanely rapid reflexes. She spun her spear to defend herself, swatting the arrow out of the air with impunity. Tracing the origin of the projectile, she turned her scarlet eyes on Shirou - he had given away the element of surprise but was unsuccessful in taking out his target.

Shirou immediately traced and loosed a second, a third arrow at the spearwoman, but she simply knocked both off course as if it were merely child's play and continued her advance. Shirou traced his fourth arrow. But this time instead of an ordinary projection, he filled the arrow with mana and launched it at a pillar just out of the spear's reach. The arrow self-destructed upon impact releasing its stored mana in an explosion, causing the building to lose its structural integrity and a massive slab of rubble collapsed directly on the woman, burying her under two tons of concrete.

Knowing that he had bought them enough time, Shirou ran up the stairs after Rin.

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Shirou burst open the door to the roof and could immediately feel the powerful downwash from the rotating blades of the helicopter blowing his auburn hair that had massive chunks bleached from his excessive use of projection magecraft over the years. His heart was beating frantically - time was running out, but once he felt Rin's fingers tighten around his own, he started to regain his composure. He remembered what he needed to protect, he remembered what he was fighting for.

Before the helicopter could even come into his field of vision, a familiar whizzing sound rushed through the air and his heart crunched with dread. Somewhere, someplace, an arrow was loosed. But this arrow packed the immense strength of a comet, casting its ominous shadowy tail as it streaked across the sky and decimated its target upon impact. The helicopter came into view. A roaring ball of fire, a twisted heap of scrap metal hurtling towards the courtyard of the Clock Tower where it crashed and made an enormous fiery plume.

On the far side of the roof, Shirou saw the two men that cut off their route forward. The archer had his face covered by a black shroud lined with gold trim and in his heavily muscled hands, he held a massive black bow - a bow was so large it could just as easily been classified as a ballista. The other man was a knight in gleaming silver armour that resembled the scales of a dragon, but his armour left a gaping hole at his chest where a sigil glowed green marking the knight's beating heart. Shirou instinctively turned his head back at the stairway, but the spearwoman somersaulted into view and stood in the way of the couple's last hope for escape.

"Enough games, Lancer. You have let them live for far too long," boomed a voice artificially enhanced by magecraft. "Kill them. Kill them both. Use your Noble Phantasm. I command you with the power of a Command Seal."

Noble Phantasm. Lancer. Command Seals. Words that were familiar to both Shirou and Rin, survivors of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Words that the couple had fought to ensure would never be spoken again, but their efforts were clearly in vain. Words that have caused men to obsess over the brutal Fuyuki Grail Wars for over two centuries had now resulted in a civil war amidst the Mage's Association.

Lancer flared up with angry red energy and took on a stance ready to drive her monstrous barbed spear through both her targets. A Command Seal had been expended, a command of unconditional, absolute obedience, a command that ensured that Lancer would stop at nothing to achieve her Master's desire. Shirou quickly ran the calculations in his head and saw that he was left with only one choice.

Lancer bounded forward and thrust forth her demonic spear, calling out the true name of her Noble Phantasm. Lancer's voice was muffled by the mask that covered her mouth and was further silenced by the roaring flames, her Noble Phantasm's true name was practically inaudible. However, Shirou had already anticipated the attack that was coming. After all, his heart had been pierced by the exact same spear just over a decade ago.

Mana rushed through his magic circuits and Shirou recited the final lines of his incantation:

 _My whole life was... Unlimited Blade Works!_

A surge of energy emanated from Shirou and the Clock Tower was consumed by a brilliant flash of light. An ever-expanding ring of fire that consumed but did not burn spread across the ground as he deployed his Reality Marble.

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Shirou and Rin opened their eyes to a graveyard of countless swords with their blade tips anchored into the dirt, lit by an evening twilight that cast its boundless amber light across the horizon that seemed to stretch on forever and had no end. Unlimited Blade Works, Shirou's Reality Marble, a reflection of his inner mind. Every weapon he had ever forged, or had even encountered was stored here, an armoury that housed an endless supply of weapons - except there was no enemy.

"What is the meaning of this Shirou?" yelled Rin in disbelief. "Why didn't you bring them in - "

"I was forced into deploying Unlimited Blade Works," explained Shirou. "It was our only way to get around Gáe Bolg - "

"G-Gáe Bolg...?" Rin ran her fingers across ruby pendant around her neck and she understood.

Shirou nodded. Gáe Bolg, a demonic spear that could reverse cause and effect. A strike from the cursed spear was guaranteed as long as it's true name was called, on top of that, a heart pierced by its barbed blade cannot be healed. Unless, of course... if the spear's intended target had vanished from reality. Such as being pulled into a Reality Marble like his.

"Lancer, Cú Chulainn... But how is that possible? That Servant was definitely a woman. There's no way Cú Chulainn is a - "

"Doesn't matter," said Shirou, surveying the twilight bathed skyline that was beginning to tear itself apart. "We don't have much time left, Rin."

"Yeah, so let us out so we can beat them and end this senseless civil war!"

Shirou sighed.

"There are _three_ Servants out there. Look Tohsaka, we have to face the facts - "

"No! This war isn't over as long as there are people willing to fight for what is right. As long as I draw breath, this war isn't over," cried Rin in denial, tears shimmered as they rolled down her cheeks. "We haven't lost... Not yet."

"You're right. This war is just beginning. But to move on, we have to admit that we made mistakes, and they have won this roun - "

Before Shirou could finish his sentence, Rin raised her hand high and slapped him across his cheek.

"Emiya-kun, you've changed," muttered Rin. "You promised... You promised me we would dismantle the Fuyuki Grail together."

"Tohsaka, look at the back of your hand. Tell me what you see."

Rin inspected her slender hands covered in ash and soot, but there was nothing.

Shirou held up his left hand so that Rin could see the back of his palm. Three Command Seals shaped like a three-segmented sword were carved into the back of his hand, exactly as they were placed over a decade ago during the Fifth Holy Grail War. Emiya Shirou was once again chosen by the Greater Grail to fight as a Master in the Sixth Holy Grail War.

"This. This is how we win the war," declared Shirou. "But for that to happen, we have accept that we lost the battle today."

"Y-You're an idiot, Shirou," scowled Rin, wiping aside her tears. "Good, now get out there and kick their asses!"

"Rin... There's something I want - no I _have_ to do first."

A blinding flash of gold radiated from Shirou's chest and a gleaming scabbard started to emerge from his chest.

"That's - " shouted Rin in disbelief.

"Avalon," finished Shirou. "Arturia's scabbard. You were once Saber's Master too, your connection to it should be just as strong."

"You can't possibly be asking me to - "

"I want you to take it."

"But - "

"As long as you have it," stuttered Shirou, tears began to fill his eyes. "As long as you have it... I know you're going to be safe. Rin... I-I can't - "

"Can't what?"

 _I can't lose you._ Is what Shirou wanted to say, but the words wouldn't leave his mouth.

"You idiot."

Rin rushed forward to wrap her hands around Shirou's waist and planted her lips onto his. And as she did, Avalon sealed itself into her body, granting her a powerful regenerative immortality.

The Reality Marble started to crumble. The endless twilight horizon began to shatter like glass and fissures started to appear in the ground. Their time was up.

"Rin," began Shirou slowly. "What I'm about to do next... You'll hate me for it. But you'll understand why I did it someday."

Shirou hardened his heart, but he knew what needed to be done. He shoved Rin with all his might, and she staggered two meters away from him.

"Shirou - "

A dozen massive azure swords rained from the shattered dome above, slicing through her flesh and dug themselves deep into the ground. The swords landed in a perfect circle around Rin, imprisoning the Magus in a cage of swords just as the Reality Marble tore itself apart and the flames of reality began to consume them and the outside world swam into view.

When the flames died, Tohsaka Rin was surrounded by three Servants and half the population of the Mage's Association. Trapped behind a cage of massive swords and incapacitated by her numerous slash wounds on her arms and feet that ripped her clothes, Rin knew she stood no chance fighting her way out. Her aqua eyes darted around frantically, but Emiya Shirou was nowhere to be found.

* * *

In the old warehouse by the Fuyuki City harbour, a lone girl sat nonchalantly with her feet up on a makeshift table atop a drum of oil. She was a stunningly beautiful woman. She had her long, platinum hair that shone like moonlight tied into an elegant half-up. Her eyes were as red as roses, her facial features so perfect and so unnaturally symmetrical she looked almost inhuman. She was also a murderer, a fabled assassin. And the six Yakuza members that surrounded her saw to it that she was treated as such. The barrels of their Heckler & Koch MP5s were aimed at her head, threatening to splatter her pretty face with a barrage of 9mm rounds should she so much as shift in her creaking chair.

Over her many years of assassinations, she went by many names and was given many names - Number Thirteen, the Bogeyman, the Spectre, the White Reaper. None she liked more than the name she gave herself, Allison Vaughn.

"The legendary White Reaper. He who kills but is never seen," chuckled a voice that belonged to a seventh man known only as the Collector. "All this time _he_ was a _she_... World leaders losing their throats in broad daylight, power players consolidating influence gone 'missing', even potentially dangerous children have been found drowning in their own blood. The stories, they can't all be tru - "

"If it makes your stomach turn, it's probably true," Allison replied coolly. "Brought the payment I asked for?"

"An entire jetliner just to kill one man on board," continued the Collector. His voice started to sour and he ignored her question.

"A _powerful_ Magus. Funny why I didn't get that memo," said Allison. "Even if you had problems with my methods, sending two men to kill me after I had the job done... That's cold. Even by my standards."

The warehouse echoed with the clacking of guns as Allison whipped out her heavily customized scarlet AR-15 and had its peripheral laser module aimed right at the Collector's head.

"Two-hundred and thirty-six passengers," snarled the Collector.

"I always get the job done. Even if that means murdering two hundred and thirty-six people," replied Allison now eyeing the Collector's six henchmen. "Two hundred and forty-two, if I have to."

The Collector hissed.

"But I believe we are here to do business. I've got a plane to catch. If it makes you feel any safer, I'll even put my gun away."

Allison unslung her AR-15 and slid it across the floor, far from her own reach.

The Collector raised his eyebrow in suspicion, perplexed by the White Reaper's illogical decision, but he beckoned his henchmen to lower their guns. On the Collector's signal, one of them stepped forward and placed an old rosewood case onto the table.

Allison unhooked the catches and the rosewood case opened, revealing its contents. Sitting on its red velvet cushion was a single-shot, break-action pistol - a Thompson/Center Arms Contender. The Contender's walnut grip and forearm were singed black, a clear indication that the pistol had been ravaged by fire. But upon closer inspection, she could tell that the Contender retained its full functionality. Lining the sides of the velvet accompanying the pistol were seven golden bullets that Allison's trained eyes could immediately tell were .30-06 Springfield cartridges.

The MP5s clacked once again, but this time the Collector's henchmen chambered in their first rounds in unison and pointed their barrels at Allison. The Collector's high-pitched laughter echoed throughout the warehouse.

"Did you really think I'd let the world's most dangerous hitman leave just like that?" laughed the Collector.

"Actually," replied Allison with an equally hearty laughter. "Yes. Yes you will. Because you have no choice - "

"What the hell are you talking about? There are seven of us and only one of you. You have _nothing_ \- "

"You put a pistol with seven rounds in front of me, what do _you_ think will happen next?" chuckled Allison, her crimson eyes glowed with a terrifying light.

"Kill her," commanded the Collector. "No loose ends."

Allison smiled and simply uttered the words:

 _Time Alter: Vorhersage Zwei!_

Time froze and ghastly blue projections of every object appeared in Allison's field of sight. While the originals stood deathly still, their blue doppelgangers resumed their movement at one-tenth their normal speed.

Time Alter, a form of Innate Time Control. For Allison, she tweaked it so that it worked on three layers. On the first layer, she froze time on the outside world, but moving in this highly accelerated state would rend her body apart, so on the second layer a bounded field around her body allowed for normal passage of time to flow. Though it still did not allow for movement, it allowed her brain to remember everything that happened during time manipulation. The third layer was a Reality Marble that projected blue shifted predictions of the future. The resulting combination was a Reality Marble that predicted the future within her range of sight. In the case of Vorhersage Zwei, Allison saw only two seconds into the future at the cost of twenty-seconds of real time. The White Reaper was effectively trading her own lifespan each time she activated Time Alter.

Tracing the blue bullet projections, Allison saw that the shots were aimed at herself and the rosewood case with the Contender. Everything was going according to plan.

Time resumed and the Reality Marble faded. Allison dove to her right, avoiding every single bullet as predicted and went for her AR-15 that she tossed aside just five minutes ago. She looked through its Trijicon ACOG sights and uttered the words once again.

 _Time Alter: Vorhersage Einz!_

Even with just one second into future, Allison saw where all the enemy fire was concentrated, she saw where all her targets were and where they were headed. Time resumed and six 5.56mm NATO tracer rounds homed in on their targets with supernatural accuracy, splattering their heads unguarded by helmets, instantly eliminating the Collector's armed henchmen all at once.

The sound of Allison's cocoa brown boots against the floor was all there was in the warehouse as she strolled back to the table with her arms behind her head. Even amidst the smell of smoking gunpowder, Allison could make out the pungent smell of urea as she approached the Collector, who handed the rosewood case over to the White Reaper with trembling hands, muttering to himself.

"Pleasure doing business with you," said Allison.

A sickening crunch resounded throughout the old Fuyuki City warehouse.

The White Reaper drove a Black Key through the Collector's throat and out the back of his skull. Blood and grey matter littered the ground and the man was dead before he hit the floor.

"No loose ends. How ironic," said Allison, with not even a tinge of remorse on her pretty face.

Allison opened the rosewood case and caressed the Contender's charred walnut handle with her slender white fingers gently.

" _Nothing_ will stand in our way. I will finish... What you started."

* * *

Rin was curled up in a dark corner of her cell. The only lights that illuminated her cell came from a torch at the far end of the dungeon and the faint bluish glow of the bounded field fortifying the wrought iron bars that kept her imprisoned.

She unwrapped her blood-sodden bandages only to find that there were no wounds, only her smooth white skin. Not even a trace of a scar. Not even at her delicate fingers where the Enforcers had ripped out her fingernails one by one while torturing her for information. Though it did not spare her the excruciating pain, Avalon the scabbard of Excalibur was doing its job.

Rin heard the shuffling of footsteps and the flaming torch gradually approached her cell. She hid her right hand behind her back and conjured a single black orb, Gundr at the tip of her finger. The blue bounded field lifted and the gates to her cell parted. Rin leapt out from the shadows and fired her Gandr shot straight at the silhouetted figure's head.

Before the black curse could connect, there was a dazzling shimmer of silver starlight. The man's Servant materialized and took the hit for his Master. The knight donned a shining silver cuirass shaped like the scales of a dragon. The Servant reached for the handle of his black sword strung on his back in retaliation, but froze when his Master spoke.

"That won't be necessary, Rider. She won't be hurting me."

The dragon knight nodded curtly.

Rider's Master stepped into Rin's field of vision, illuminated by the flaming torch he held. He was a boy, no older than eighteen, dressed casually in simple denim jeans and a black, long-sleeved hoodie. But Rin flinched when she laid her eyes on his face. Though the boy's dark, purplish hair was pulled over the left side of his face, Rin could still make out the mass of scar tissue and from the awkward manner in which his hair hung, she had a hunch that his left socket was empty.

"Name's Ryuuzaki," the boy introduced himself. "It's not nice to stare you know, Tohsaka."

Rin blushed and looked away. "Well I'm sor - "

"No you're not," interrupted Ryuuzaki. "Lovely isn't it? A parting gift from my beloved father. That's what a face full of glass looks like on a five-year old."

A terrible mix of guilt and sympathy tugged at Rin's heart upon hearing his words. But she suddenly remembered her predicament. One of the four Masters that had won the civil war was here, which meant only one thing.

Rin spat in defiance. "Look, if you're here for information, you're going to have to rip off the fingernails on my other han - "

"Oh nonono, nothing that crude I assure you," scoffed Ryuuzaki in amusement.

He reached into his rucksack and pulled out a fresh set of clothes.

"Red and black. Just the way you like it," said Ryuuzaki. "Those are my sister's. I'm having your head if you so much as - "

"Wait. You're not here for information?" interrupted Rin with a raised eyebrow.

"Officially I am. But _unofficially_ , I'm after something else," replied Ryuuzaki. "Though if I really wanted information, I would have ripped it from your brain."

Rin tried to protest, but Ryuuzaki snapped his fingers. Immediately, she felt an invisible ripple pulsate through the cell that struck her squarely on her chest.

Rin suddenly started to speak involuntarily in a monotonous voice. "Emiya Shirou escaped by repositioning himself with his Reality Marble, Unlimited Blade Works. Emiya Shirou has probably figured Lancer's identity from her Noble Phantasm. Emiya Shirou is confirmed to be the seventh Master in this Holy Grail War. Knowing that this Grail War is held on Academy Island, Emiya Shirou would probably be - "

Ryuuzaki snapped his fingers again and Rin regained control of her body, gasping for breath.

"I have a proposal to make, Tohsaka. Before that, there's something I want you to see first," smiled Ryuuzaki. "But I can't have you walking down the Pleiades mansion in those hideous rags - "

"Who's going to listen to anything you have to say?" snarled Rin.

Ryuuzaki sighed and left the clothes on Rin's bed.

"Look here, I'm not a monster. Not like those guys up there."

He hung the torch on the wall, but left the door to her cell open.

"If you change your mind, I'll be by the stairs," said Ryuuzaki. "And if you don't, Lord Auteur will have some interesting bits of information."

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Rin stepped gingerly towards the light at the end of the dungeon. Her new clothes felt tight around her chest and waist, but otherwise her red off-shoulder dress with gothic black trimming fit her reasonably well considering they belonged to Ryuuzaki's sister. She had half the mind to compliment the boy's attention to detail that she loved red and black clothes. Hell, he even managed to get her a pair of heels that snugly fit her feet, something that she found sorely lacking in the ridiculously dense Emiya Shirou.

"Nice to see that they fit you Tohsaka," complimented Ryuuzaki.

 _Boy's got manners. Dammit Shirou!_

Ryuuzaki reached into his hoodie, withdrew the cracked half of a kabuki mask and pulled it over the left side of his face to cover his scars.

"D-Don't get over your head," stuttered Rin. "I-I'm just going to hear what you have to say. If I don't like what I hear - "

"I'll just put you back where I found you," said Ryuuzaki in a dark voice. "No tricks. Don't even think about escaping. If you are dumb enough to try it, Rider over here will kill you."

Rin cursed silently. She was confident in her prowess as a Magus to simply overpower Ryuuzaki and escape. But there were too many complications. First was that boy's annoying ability to snap his fingers and force her into submission. Even if she overcame that, she would probably need to get past every last guard skulking around the mansion, and even if she made it past that, at best she would be forced to deal with Rider and at worst she would have to contend with three Servants. Those were not very favourable odds.

Rin's eyes winced in pain as they came into contact with natural light for the first time in weeks. The pair left the dungeons and stepped into the massive hallway of the mansion, undoubtedly owned by Lord Auteur Pleiades, one of twelve lords from the Mage's Association. Colossal chandeliers brimming with crystals and jewels the size of tangerines hung from the ceiling, priceless paintings and tapestries hung from the walls on both floors. Multitudes of magical artifacts sat behind their glass boxes alongside exquisitely designed furniture that even the Einzberns would be truly envious.

Ryuuzaki led Rin up an ornate spiral staircase, across a series of hallways until they finally arrived at a room with a red door. Ryuuzaki knocked on the door three times and then ushered Rin into the room.

Lying in bed, dressed entirely in a white hospital gown was a girl that bore an uncanny resemblance to Ryuuzaki. She too had long, dark hair with dull purple hues, but her skin appeared sallow and sickly and drained. Everything about the girl screamed that she was unwell, except for her amber eyes that seemed to sparkle with golden sunbeams.

"Oh hi, Onii-chan!" exclaimed the girl, but her face fell when she saw Rin. "...who's the girl?"

"Oh... Errr this is Tohsaka. Tohsaka Rin," muttered Ryuuzaki uncharacteristically. "S-She's from the Mineralogy - "

"Tohsaka-san, it's nice to meet you," the girl dipped her head politely. "My name is Reina. Ryuuzaki is my twin brother."

"Just 'Rin' is fine," said Rin in an equally polite tone.

"Well then Rin-san, it's nice to see you put my clothes to use," giggled Reina cheerfully. "As you can see, I don't get much chances to wear them these days. They look really pretty on you."

Rin blushed and silently adjusted her hair.

Ryuuzaki knelt beside his sister's bed and held up her hand. Rin gasped in shock at the sight of her arm. A multitude of glowing tendrils were latched onto Reina's arm, at the tip of each tube were a bundle of needles digging under her skin and into her flesh to reach her numerous magic circuits to drain her mana - the girl had a countless number of high-quality magic circuits. Rin's eyes traced the flow of the tubes and realized that Reina's mana was endlessly harvested and stored within a heap of jewels. Why did these twins seem to claw at her heartstrings so much? Why did she feel so much sympathy for them? Why were their situations so heart-wrenching? Why was life so unfair for the twins?

"Reina," began Ryuuzaki. Rin noticed that he lost his confident, sarcastic tone when he spoke to his sister. "As I mentioned earlier, Tohsaka-san here is an expert in Mineralogy. She's going to help you - "

"Rin-san," interrupted Reina, turning her head to face Rin. "I hope Ryuuzaki-nii isn't making life difficult for you. I know he can make you do it whether you want to or not, but this is your decision to mak - "

Rin's fingers tightened around her ruby necklace round her neck.

She weighed her options, but she knew what was the right thing to do.

"I'm doing it," said Rin firmly. "Reina-san, I'm going to do everything in my power to help you. I promise."

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Ryuuzaki shut the red door behind him slowly and heaved a sigh of relief.

"What's the matter?" asked Rin.

"It's nothing," lied Ryuuzaki.

Rin folded her arms and frowned. "If you're not going to be honest with me, then I'm going back to the dungeons."

"It's just... It's the first time I've seen Reina smile when I'm around another girl. She doesn't usually react well - "

Rin doubled over laughing. "That's a good thing, idiot!"

"Tohsaka, I don't think you get it. Reina can get _really_ aggressive. I'm talking knives and crucifixes - "

"You have _no idea_ how protective girls can be when it comes to someone they love," Rin started to tear up in her eyes.

"Tohsaka, you sound like you're speaking from experience," said Ryuuzaki, shooting her a nasty grin.

Rin's face flushed as red as her dress. "Hell no. Emiya-kun and I are jus - "

"If you're not going to be honest with me..."

Ryuuzaki raised his hand high and Rin knew what was at stake. She flew over instantaneously, cupping her hands around his to prevent him from snapping his fingers, determined to stop it at all costs.

"I take it that we're on the same side then, Tohsaka." laughed Ryuuzaki.

"Well we're not on opposing sides," snapped Rin with her nose in the air

Ryuuzaki extended his hand, revealing where his Command Seals had been carved into the back of his palm, shaped like a three-segmented dragon and Rin shook his hand.

* * *

Shirou turned his head as soon as he heard the double doors to the White Church being violently rammed open.

The girl that stood at the doorway had waist-length platinum hair that shone like moonlight. She wore a black fur-trim jacket over her white undershirt and black pleated skirt. The black choker round her neck had the number 13 emblazoned into the cloth in gold. Straps and holstered pistols clung to her thighs over her mismatched socks, thigh-high on her left but knee high on her right. Her crimson eyes glanced past Shirou, but were fixed upon the ceiling of the chapel, scanning it hungrily.

"You're a tough person to reach," began Shirou. "You must be - "

The girl drew from the depths of her jacket a custom-made AR-15. Acquiring her targets through its Trijicon ACOG sights, the five deafening gunshots that followed made Shirou's ears ring and five headless pigeons fell from the ceiling of the chapel.

"You must be incredibly _tolerant_ of eavesdropping," the girl sarcastically finished Shirou's sentence.

Stowing away her red AR-15, Allison sat herself down on a bench behind Shirou, placing her cocoa brown boots on the bench less than half a meter away from his face.

"How did you know they were familiars?"

"Really? Besides the White Church being the place where the Overseer is?" scoffed the girl.

The empty chapel suddenly echoed with applause. Both Shirou and the girl immediately turned their heads.

"Bravo, bravo!" came a third voice, accompanied by the clapping of hands.

A priest garbed in the ubiquitous black cassock of the Holy Church stepped into view. His hair was graying, but there was no doubt that the Overseer was in the pink of health, he even looked capable of holding his own against an Executor from the Church.

"Father Urban, Overseer of this most unusual Sixth Holy Grail War," said the priest calmly. "This is Emiya Shirou, survivor of the Fifth Holy Grail War. Shirou, this is... well, how do you want to call yourself?"

"Allison. Allison Vaughn." replied the girl, rolling her eyes.

"Unfortunately, the Mage's Association has failed to eradicate the Fuyuki Grail Wars, and now it's become _our_ problem," Father Urban shot a disapproving glare at Shirou. "But along with this misfortune, comes an unlikely opportunity for the Holy Church. The Sixth Holy Grail War does not take place in Fuyuki City, which means the Einzberns aren't providing the Lesser Grail. This has created quite a problem for the Mage's Association, particularly the ones who won the civil war and are adamant about the Grail War."

Father Urban withdrew a scroll from his cassock. A piece of parchment depicting an ornate chalice adorned with gemstones.

"That's... That's the Holy Grail," said Shirou in disbelief. "The _actual_ Holy Grail?"

"The cup at the Last Supper, the golden chalice that caught the blood of Christ. Yes, yes," snapped Allison.

"The Mage's Association controlling four of seven Servants wasn't simply to win them the civil war," continued Father Urban. "In fact, they would have summoned all seven Servants to strong arm the Grail War, but the Greater Grail has measures against that - "

"If seven Servants cooperate, seven more will be summoned to oppose them," interrupted Shirou. "That would defeat the purpose of control..."

Father Urban nodded.

"Hence they were forced to allow us outsiders to compete in the Grail War. Three of us to be exact," said Allison. "What does the Church want then?"

"The Church's directive is simple. The Holy Grail is the most important artifact in history, some might even argue it is the only artifact that matters," said Father Urban with a smile. "So long as we have the chalice, the outcome of the Grail War is immaterial. You guys can split the wish-granting device however you want."

"That's it?" chuckled Allison.

"That's it? I should warn you that the Mage's Association are currently in possession of the strongest Servants. Archer, Lancer, Rider and Berserker are currently allied," reported the priest. "Since the two of you answered the Church's call, an alliance would be wise."

Shirou got to his feet and called out to his Servant.

"Saber!"

Blue and red starlight shimmered as Shirou's Servant started to materialize beside him. Saber was a female swordsman donning a dangerously short blue kimono secured with a red obi. Her pink hair was tied up in a ponytail that fanned out behind her, but left a single lock of hair hanging by her right to achieve her asymmetrical look. Tucked at her waist were two pairs of swords, the longer katanas and the shorter wakizashis. The Heroic Spirit of the Sword emitted an aura of positivity, even when she had her arms folded, her confidence spoke loads about her skill with the sword.

"The strongest Servant eh?" complimented Allison. "This could work out, I guess."

"Wahahaha, your eyes are keen, my lady. I _am_ the strongest Servant," laughed Saber, ruffling her hair. "Gosh, I'm already loving this alliance, Master."

Shirou sighed and shook his head. _Geez have you no modesty?_

A flashback jolted Shirou's mind. He had already seen three of the seven Servants back at the Clock Tower. Lancer, a woman with long dark hair armed with the demonic spear, Gáe Bolg. Archer, the tall, muscular man with a monstrous black bow. The knight in dragon armour was harder to make out if he was Rider or Berserker.

By process of elimination, Allison would be the Master of Assassin or Caster. Shirou crossed his fingers that he would be allied with Caster. He had witnessed firsthand how Medea, Caster of the Fifth Holy Grail War had almost won the war. Assassin on the other hand...

"Assassin, show yourself."

Shirou's heart sank like a stone. Of course things wouldn't go the way he wanted. Why did he keep his hopes up?

Dull, blood-red miasma gathered and Allison's Servant materialized beside her. Assassin stood a head taller than Saber. His skin was tanned and his face was hidden under a red hood, further obscured beneath layers of bandages. Like his Master, Assassin had multiple holsters armed with guns, he even had an M9 bayonet tucked into his belt.

Shirou offered his hand to Allison.

"I wouldn't be too quick to make an alliance just yet Master," croaked Assassin.

Shirou narrowed his eyes. There was something familiar about Assassin's voice.

"Is that so? Humour me, Assassin," smirked Allison.

"As far as winning the Grail War is concerned, an alliance with the Mage's Association is the most logical course of action," said Assassin.

Shirou grit his teeth in frustration, but nothing could prepare him for what Assassin was about to suggest next.

"Being allied with them gives us the chance to get close to the enemy and gain their trust. This in turn gives me the best chance to slit their Masters' throats."

Shirou's fingernails dug into his palms, but Allison's grin widened after listening to Assassin's analysis. However, she stepped forward and shook Shirou's hand firmly.

"Colour me impressed, Assassin," said Allison. "But as long as _I_ am Master, we're sticking to _my_ plan."

Allison peeled back the glove on her right hand to show Shirou her Command Seals shaped like a swirling red rose.

"As long as I have these, your throat is safe," said the White Reaper with a smile that deeply unsettled Shirou.

* * *

 _Author's Notes_

Hey there readers, this is the first fanfic I've written on my own or posted anywhere, so your criticism would go a long way for me as an aspiring writer.

First up, I want to say that even though I'm a fan of the Nasuverse, my understanding of how the world works is limited to the anime adaptations of F/SN, F/Z, Apocrypha and the KnK movies, so I apologize if I broke/will break any major rules with the universe.

Next is the setting. This fic is an AU sequel to F/SN UBW where Rin and Shirou have failed to dismantle the Grail Wars of Fuyuki, resulting in a Sixth Grail War on the fictional country, Academy Island (no prizes to anyone who guesses where its based on).

Third, about the characters. Shirou, Rin and ***spoiler*** (c'mon you made it this far) Kiritsugu are the only characters from the cast of F/SN and F/Z so far. I have always found Shirou with Avalon to be stupidly overpowered. So to raise the stakes in this fic, I slapped him with the nerfstick so that he can actually stay dead if he is killed.

Fourth, about the Servants. A problem I had with many OC Grail Wars out on fanfic net is that I have difficulty matching OC Masters to their Servants, so I ran a simple naming convention for this fic to solve my own headache. Masters will _always_ have the first letter of their names matching the class of their Servant. E.g: Shirou - Saber. Allison - Assassin. I'll also include a list on my profile as the Servants show up in the fic.

Lastly, this fic aims to re-capture the same themes and story beats that made F/Z great, so expect this fic to be dark and full of terrors.

Thanks for reading my work, hope you guys enjoy it :)


	2. Chapter 2

**\- Chapter 2 -**

* * *

The BMW i8 was an absolute marvel. The hybrid super-car could accelerate from a deadstop to 100 km/h in just 4.4 seconds with an electronic-limited top speed of 250 km/h. Those specifications all but assured that Allison would to abuse the car to its fullest, but doing so forced Shirou to cling on to the ceiling handles for dear life as the sleek, mirror-finished silver sports car flew down Academy Island's highway, weaving in and out of the traffic with ease.

Shirou wasn't just feeling uncomfortable because of the way Allison handled the i8, rather he was more uncomfortable with _how_ she got her hands on such a spectacular vehicle. Judging from his brief encounter with Allison and Assassin back at the Church, the pair was certainly not above bloodshed or even blackmail.

"This baby?" smirked Allison. "Fully sponsored by our beloved Holy Church. Don't feel bad for them. If only you knew how much they got in donations."

At the corner of his eye, he saw a tiny red hilt peeking out from Allison's black jacket, that he recognized instantly as the handle of a Black Key. In his mind, Shirou began to connect the dots. Sponsored by the Holy Church, using Black Keys as a weapon, possessing knowledge of relics like the Holy Grail and having absolutely no problems with murder. In his mind, only one profession stood out like a sore thumb.

"... You're an Executor, aren't you?"

Allison burst into laughter and the i8 swerved momentarily as she took her eyes off the road.

"Do I look like one of those gloomy fuckers?" sniggered Allison. "I'm an atheist. The Eighth Sacrament would have me thrown out before I can say grace."

"Why would the Church sponsor someone unaffiliated with them?"

"Because I get the job done. And since I'm not affiliated, they can hunt me down with them gloomy priests if they aren't satisfied with my work."

Shirou looked out the window at the metropolitan skyline of Academy Island, a bustling island-city that was the heart of commerce in Southeast Asia, the highest concentration of wealth in the region and was also the most technologically advanced. It was also a city that was now doomed to face the same fate as Fuyuki City. Shirou blinked and suddenly he saw that the city was engulfed by angry red flames that reached for the night sky. Looming high over the cityscape was a swirling black hole lined by an ominous red corona, it resembled an eclipse, but Shirou knew that it was anything but an eclipse.

Though the Grail Wars were supposed to be fought incognito, it only happened on paper. In practice, the very _opposite_ had happened for the Fourth Holy Grail War, ending in a fire that consumed the city, resulting in millions of dollars in damages, hundreds of lives lost including his own if he wasn't saved by Emiya Kiritsugu. A man whose ideas would go on to inspire Shirou's life.

Shirou clenched his fist. He wasn't going to let the same fate befall Academy Island.

"So we're up against Archer, Lancer, Rider and Berserker...? Father Urban warned us that - "

"Don't trust anything that shitty priest has said," snapped Allison.

"Wait what - "

"Don't trust anything that shitty priest has said," repeated Allison. "He's been lying to us."

"But we're allied with the Church - "

The Overseer having ulterior motives was certainly not new to Shirou. But Father Urban seemed a thousand-fold more trustworthy than the Overseer of the Fifth Holy Grail War, Kotomine Kirei. In fact, the priest had even laid bare his motives for the Sixth Holy Grail War - so long as the Church had the Holy Grail, they were not concerned with the outcome of the Grail War.

"The Mage's Association have only consolidated three Masters, not four," explained Allison. "The priest only mentioned four because he thinks it was more likely for the rest of us to team up. Bertrand Paulsen, Master of Berserker has gone rogue - "

"No, that's not right," interrupted Shirou with a raised eyebrow. "Bertrand Paulsen was _instrumental_ to them during the civil war."

Shirou's mind was riddled with contradictions. Perhaps it was Allison Vaughn, the White Reaper who was not trustworthy. Hell was Allison Vaughn even her name to begin with? Father Urban had even asked her how she would like to be called when they introduced themselves. He shook his head and quickly pushed that idea out of his head - such poisonous thoughts would negate the purpose of an alliance, what good was it if they couldn't trust each other?

He tried to recall the events that transpired at the top of the Clock Tower. Rin and him were outnumbered by... _three_ Servants. Allison was telling the truth, which logically meant that Bertrand, the Master of Berserker did indeed have a falling out with Lord Auteur. Following that line of thought to its conclusion, it meant that by the end of the civil war, Bertrand had already gone rogue and the third Servant whose class he was uncertain of - the knight in silver armour had to be Rider.

"Bertrand the _Mad_ Enforcer," corrected Allison. "With a Servant as powerful as Berserker, he wasn't likely to stay tied down to authority anyway. Not with something as intoxicating as revenge clinging onto his mind."

"Revenge?" said Shirou, raising his eyebrow in intrigue.

There was a moment of silence as Shirou stared at Allison.

"He thinks that I killed his wife," said Allison in her as-a-matter-of-fact voice, ending the long pause.

Shirou opened his mouth, but decided to suppress the incredible urge to ask _well, did you?_

"Thank you," said Allison.

"What for?"

"For not asking if I did."

"Don't mention it - "

Allison suddenly floored the brakes and the i8 skidded to a halt.

"We're here."

The doors of the i8 slid open upwards and Shirou stepped out of the vehicle, only to be stupefied by the splendor of their apartment.

The Pinnacle was a 50-storey monstrosity smack in the middle of Academy Island's central business district. Standing at 156m in height, the Pinnacle boasted not one, but two sky gardens - one on the twenty-sixth floor and the other on the fiftieth floor. The gardens also acted as a sky bridge, spanning through all four apartment blocks. Shirou had a nagging feeling that their impressive accommodation too was -

"Fully sponsored by our beloved Holy Church," smirked Allison.

Shirou started to imagine the sort of negotiation that Allison had gone through for the Church to extensively sponsor them with such excessive luxuries.

"Did you have to sell your soul to the Church for all this?" asked Shirou. "Maybe even a kidney or two."

"Nah, my soul is beyond redemption in their eyes," said Allison. "The deal is simple. We hand them the Grail as promised, we get the full support of the Church. Though what they've provided us is pretty bare bones, if you ask me."

But then again, the Holy Grail was not simply an artifact to the Church, it was 'the only artifact that matters' according to Father Urban. It made complete sense to Shirou that these zealots would pour any amount of resources to acquire an item of that importance. And if Allison's fabled accolades as the legendary White Reaper were true, just her skills alone warranted such treatment from the Church.

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Saber tipped the keg and arched her head back so that she could drain every last drop of the sparkling golden liquid. The label, Erdinger Weißbräu was stamped onto the side of the keg, but to Saber it only mattered to her to know that it was wheat beer. Who would have thought that drinks in the twenty-first century would still taste this good? From a foreign country no less.

"BWAHAHAHAHA! This is... awesome stuff! Ally... Alli-chan, you should have one yourself!" shouted Saber, exhaling deeply. "What's the use of keeping so many kegs of this stuff and not drinking any?"

Saber put down the empty keg beside four other empty kegs by the drinks counter. Five kegs in and she was still by her own measure, alive and kicking. Her world had only just began to spin, which meant that she needed more alcohol.

"Y'know, Saber. There's more in the store where that came from," came the voice of whom Saber at this point, could only recognize as a girl with platinum hair.

Allison Vaughn, which Saber was quite certain was Assassin's Master began to swim into view. The girl was stark naked except for the towel she used to dry her platinum hair, and Saber could easily see why she would do that - Allison had an incredibly shapely figure to flaunt. She had a well-endowed chest that Saber had to exercise the herculean restraint not to dive in and grope her breasts. Her waist was slim, but it expanded organically to her wide hips that then led down to her long, bountiful legs. But simply saying she had a nice figure was not enough for Saber, she had to know. As an _expert_ swordswoman, Saber had acquired the Empyrean Eye, a variation of Mystic Eyes to which she would abuse tonight to make out that Allison's three sizes were:

"B-85, W-56, H-84...!" declared Saber with her nose in the air.

Her Master choked on his drink, spewing volumes of brown soda on the marbled floor from his nostrils.

Saber shook her head in disappointment. The poor child had passed up on the alcohol. Which by Saber's honest opinion was the biggest letdown. She had been thoroughly satisfied with her Master in every aspect until discovering tonight that he did not indulge in alcohol. 'Not very Master-like' was the phrase she remembered she'd used. Or was it? Her memory was becoming sketchy. Whatever the case, that was three kegs ago and it no longer mattered to Saber.

"Oh? Seems like I'm not the only one with keen eyes," teased Allison.

Saber punched her hand into the air. Approval and praises were the only other things she liked as much as alcohol.

"Don't do that we are _not_ encouraging this," sighed Shirou in exasperation.

Allison called out, "Saber, be a pal and hit me with a mug of that stuff - "

"Can you please put on some clothes?" begged Shirou, trying his best to avert his gaze. "Gosh I sound like a parent - "

"Your mistake," croaked a voice slightly muffled by bandages. "Is that you treat her as a woman. That's exactly the kind of thinking that will get you killed."

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Dull, blood-red miasma gathered and Assassin revealed himself. The Heroic Spirit of Assassinations had been slouching cross-legged on the sofa beside Shirou the whole time.

"You talking about Saber or - "

"Both. Why make the distinction?" asked Assassin enigmatically.

"I wonder if we should just make a switch. Those two are practically... "

"... made for each other." finished Shirou and Assassin together in unison.

Assassin looked away and started to fiddle with his M9 bayonet.

"Nah... that look in your eyes. You're a Hero of Justice. It'll do you good to stay away from an assassin like myself," said the hooded man. "You'll be... disappointed if you were to pair with me."

Before Shirou could say a word, Saber and Allison, now wrapped loosely in a bath robe crashed into the sofa across Assassin and Shirou with their arms around each other.

"OKAY! Let's err... talk about how we gonna win this Grail ...thingy!" yelled Saber, holding high her sixth keg of wheat beer.

Allison took a swing of beer from her own mug, then pushed a button on her remote control. An overhead projector whirred to life, showing an overhead view of what appeared to be a cargo-hold by the harbour with all its vantage points and other strategic locations highlighted in different colours.

"Before I begin, may I know Saber's true identity? Her fame and legend does affects her strength as a Heroic Spirit - "

"My true name? Shinmen Musashi no Kami Fujiwara no Harunobu. But you can just call me Musashi!" declared Saber proudly.

Shirou immediately slapped his face with his palm. It had been incredibly fortuitous of him to summon one of the greatest, if not _the_ greatest swordsman in Japan, Miyamoto Musashi. While he shared her sense of justice and righteousness, her pride and cavalier attitude was her ultimate weakness. Hell, it directly resulted in her giving up her true identity without any resistance and was even proud about it. A Servant's true name was something that every Servant should guard with their lives even around allies, some do not even reveal it to their own Masters. Knowing a Servant's identity was effectively half the war because all it took was for the enemy to make a trip down to the library and pick up a history book to discover everything about the Heroic Spirit's strengths and weaknesses.

"Miyamoto Musashi?" said Allison in awe. "Then my plan should work fine."

Shirou glanced to his left at Assassin. "Assassin, what's _your_ true identity?"

"Assassin," replied Assassin curtly. "I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to thanks to my Master's _competence_ at summoning. My memories are all still scrambled."

"How convenient that must be for you if that were true - "

"Are you questioning me, Emiya Shirou - "

From the glare that Allison gave Assassin, Shirou concluded that Assassin was telling the truth. Rin's Servant, Archer had gaps in his memory during the Fifth Holy Grail War too, so it wasn't out of the question for Assassin to be plagued by the same problems. Besides, Shirou wasn't about to pick a fight with the only other sensible person in this apartment.

"According to the Church's intel, the Grail will be at the harbour tomorrow night," began Allison. "Best case scenario, only the three Servants with the Mage's Association will be there. Worst case scenario, it becomes a clusterfuck where all seven Servants play hot potato over Grail."

"Sounds like an uphill fight," commented Shirou. "Things are complicated when they are not simple."

"Actually the plan is super easy, barely an inconvenience," smiled Allison and pointed at the map. "As the strongest Servant class, everyone will be looking to get rid of Saber first. Hence Saber will be on the front lines drawing fire, which buys Assassin time to search the cargoes under Presence Concealment."

"That doesn't sound very hero-esque," moaned Saber.

"You potentially get to cross swords against Archer, Lancer, Rider and Berserker. That sound heroic enough for you?" said Allison.

"Meh, they'd better be good, Alli-chan," said Saber.

"Our objective is the Grail. Once Assassin has gotten the Grail, Shirou use a Command Seal to get Saber to withdraw. We don't need her to stay longer than she needs to. It's the first day into the Grail War, a tactical victory and some information about the enemy will be sufficient."

Shirou shook his head, something didn't add up.

"You've not accounted for Caster and the other Masters. They're going to be some of the most powerful Magi - "

"Sniper fire," interrupted Allison, cocking her Remington 700 sniper rifle.

The White Reaper pointed at three vantage points she marked out on the map in red, then at another vantage point in yellow overlooking all three red ones.

"If they are dumb enough to show up at any of these locations as spectators, they will be retiring from this Grail War early."

"Even if Saber could hold off for long enough," asked Shirou. "What good is the Grail vessel without the Greater Grail?"

"We use the chalice to break up their empire from within," replied Allison.

* * *

Ryuuzaki knocked on the red door three times.

"Come in Onii-chan!" sang the voice behind the door.

Reina was overjoyed to see her twin brother, but her elation was short-lived. Her face soured when she noticed that he was not alone.

"... Oh it's you," murmured Reina in a markedly lower voice.

Today she did not even bother to contain her dissatisfaction at the sight of Tohsaka Rin. It was almost as if Reina's mood changed with the weather and it was currently a devastating thunderstorm outside the Pleiades mansion.

"I.. brought a little something for you," said Ryuuzaki.

He put a basket of fruits by the window beside her bed and then patted her head affectionately.

Silver starlights shimmered and Rider materialized beside Ryuuzaki.

"Sieg-kun!" exclaimed Reina.

"My lady," the dragon knight dipped his head to acknowledge Reina's greeting, then turned to face his Master. "Master, an urgent summon by Lord Auteur. It seems like their plans have changed regarding tonight's operation."

Ryuuzaki adjusted his kabuki mask and sighed, "I'll be back in a bit... Reina, be nice."

The red door closed shut and the two girls stared at each other awkwardly in silence.

"Well Reina-san, if you could let me see your arm so that I can get started," said Rin, trying her best to force a smile.

Reina stuck her horrible tube-infested arm out, but looked out of the window at the raging tropical thunderstorm.

As expected, Reina's power as a Magus was that she had an exponential number of Magic Circuits. Rin herself as a Magus of exceptional magical talent had an inborn count of 40 Magic Circuits, even her pompous rival, Luvia had 100 Magic Circuits though it was unknown how many were inherited from the Edelfelt's family Crest. What Rin was looking at was absolutely incredible. Reina's arm alone contained anywhere from 100 to 500 Magic Circuits each brimming with mana, it was actually hard to believe how her tiny body could hold so many Circuits. Such power would have guaranteed that Reina be bestowed a Sealing Designation by the Mage's Association.

Reina took a deep breath and spoke.

"So, Rin-san," Reina said in her cutesy voice as if she was talking to her brother. "What kind of deal did you make with Ryuuzaki-nii?"

Rin was taken aback by Reina's sudden change in voice.

"Well, the Master-Servant pair gets a pair of wishes at the end of the Grail War... Rider has sworn on his honour as a knight to wish for what Ryuuzaki wanted, and he in turn agreed to let me have the other wish - to dismantle the Greater Grail for ever."

Reina muttered something inaudible.

Rin continued to work on Reina's arm. On closer look, Rin noticed that the tubes were not draining any mana from her arm, but rather, were monitoring a very specific set of Magic Circuits - the ones glowing green like the symbol on Rider's heart. She then traced the tubing back to the heap of gemstones, here her expertise in Mineralogy kicked in. Lord Auteur himself was a known prodigy at jewel magecraft, but through years of reading through her father's old notes, Rin could tell that the majority of gems were set with explosive functions. She finally understood what the whole setup was for.

"It's a kill-switch," muttered Rin, her eyes widened. "It's a chain reaction set to blow you up if those Circuits exceed a certain threshold of mana. I-I can remove the rig, but it's going to take some time... No wait - "

 _Her father's old notes._ Rin suddenly remembered a strange observation Tokiomi had made in his notes about the Fourth Holy Grail War. The Master of Lancer had formed a special contract such that Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald held the Command Seals, but his fiance Sola-Ui Nuada-Re Sophia-Ri supplied the mana to sustain their Servant. Could it be...?

Everything started to click in Rin's mind. If the same kind of contract was indeed being made between the twins, then Ryuuzaki who held the Command Seals was Rider's true Master, but Reina who had the exaggerating number of Magic Circuits supplied mana for Rider safely behind the enemy lines in the Pleiades mansion. A logically sound strategy, Rin would have done the exact same thing. To further ensure that Ryuuzaki and Rider stood in line, Lord Auteur must have hooked Reina up to a kill-switch as insurance. But then... Why set it to blow at a certain mana threshold?

Mana threshold... Mana... Yes of course, a Servant's most mana-consuming action was the activation of their Noble Phantasm, and _Rider_ was normally associated with having the strongest Noble Phantasm amongst the seven Servant classes. But no, there were more complications. For Rider to keep his end of the deal, Rin needed him to be the last Servant standing. And this seemed practically impossible if he was not allowed to use his Noble Phantasm.

Rin suddenly had a stroke of brilliance, she carefully selected a few tubes and severed their connection to the jewels. She then slumped into her chair beside Reina's bed, satisfied with her work.

"Reina-san, I've done the best I can for today. If I'm right about your condition, I should have no problem removing it completely tomorrow."

"Thank you, Rin-san. That's... more than I can hope for," said Reina awkwardly, such that Rin could tell that she had rehearsed her lines.

"Rin-san... Do you know what it's like to love someone?" said Reina, this time dropping her cutesy voice entirely.

The image of Shirou smiling came into Rin's mind and she blushed. "Y-Yes of course...!"

Reina reached into the basket and took out a pair of apples.

"Would you like an apple?"

"Yeah. Sure," said Rin. From the corner of her eye she noticed a silver glint and yelled. "Holy shit - "

Reina was holding a gleaming silver knife in her right to skin the apple in her left. Ryuuzaki's words haunted Rin's mind - _knives and crucifixes._ Was he referring to her skill at skinning apples? If so, Reina looked like she was an expert at it - the girl had removed all the skin in a perfect, continuous spiral, yet left the succulent flesh beneath unmolested. She smiled and tossed Rin the apple.

"Ryuuzaki-nii always had a thing for older girls..." began Reina, delighted to see that Rin was eating her apple. "When we were twelve years old, he started talking and _laughing_ with this fourteen year old girl next to our cell... I will never forget her. Her name was Emilia."

Cell... So the twins _did_ receive a Sealing Designation from the Mage's Association and spent their childhood locked up under the Clock Tower, studied and experimented on by the Mage's Association in complete secrecy. Rin turned her head and saw that Reina was skinning her own apple, but there was something different, something disturbing about the way she did it. She skinned it slowly, gently, almost lovingly, all while talking to Rin.

"You see, Emilia had a cat. A fat, ugly gray tabby. She enchanted Ryuuzaki-nii with the cat. Soon, the cat was all those two would talk about. For a time, Ryuuzaki-nii was spending more time with someone other than me. For once, Ryuuzaki-nii had smiled at someone other than me. That vixen was taking Ryuuzaki-nii away from me. So I killed her cat. And I skinned it alive." whispered Reina. Her irises had lost their amber sparkle and had become cold and dark.

Rin froze and dropped the apple into her lap.

"R-Reina-san. That's... That's a joke right?"

A deafening bolt of lightning illuminated the room, and for a split second Rin saw that Reina cast an enormous shadow against the wall behind her. The shadow of a dragon spreading its powerful wings, rearing on its hind legs and opening its massive twisted maw.

Reina burst into laughter and spoke with her cutesy voice again. "Just kidding!"

* * *

Allison peered through her Leupold Rifleman 6x40mm scope while clutching the Remington 700 close to her chest by its walnut-finished stock. She had the bolt-action sniper rifle modified to be chambered for .30-06 Springfield cartridges. The seven bullets that once served as a Catalyst for her Servant, Assassin, now doubled as a Magus-killing Mystic Code housed in the Remington's 5-round internal magazine.

A Magus struck by one of the magecraft bullets would have their active Magic Circuits torn apart and then stitched together rapidly, causing them to go out of control, dealing severe damage to the Magus. A fatal shot was infinitely more merciful. Should the victim survive, the severed-and-stitched Circuits became useless - a crippling castration for any Magi, such that death would have been preferable instead.

From her perch at the roof of the building, she held the second-best vantage point with an obstructed view of the harbour, but a perfect view of the three most sought-after vantage points overlooking the harbour - just as she planned.

"Shirou, be careful down there," warned Allison through her earpiece.

"Copy," came Shirou's reply.

Despite her warning, her ally had decided to act against his own safety and stand by his Servant tonight. That was a foolish and irrational decision, thought Allison, and now she was forced to prioritize her cover fire over Shirou rather than to offensively eliminate any Masters who decided to show up on any one of the three vantage points.

Allison reached out with her mind to Assassin.

 _In position?_

 _Searching the cargoes in the Northwest Sector. Nice to see that you put those old turkeys back to use. How many of them were there left?_

 _Seven._

 _One for each Master then?_

 _I'm only holding on to one today, firing even one would give my position away, firing more than that would be stretching my chances._

 _Use it wisely then -_

 _Shut up. It's starting._

Allison peered her scope again so that she could see the center of the harbour where Saber and Shirou were standing.

A second Servant leapt from a tall stack of shipping containers, somersaulted gracefully in the air and then landed silently across Saber. This Servant wore a skin-tight bodysuit flanked by silver pauldrons on her shoulders. Her long hair was dark purple like her suit, and her eyes were crimson like the demonic lance in her right hand.

 _Lancer..._

* * *

Saber's heart quivered with excitement.

The first battle of the Sixth Holy Grail War was her's. And she was going to show whichever Heroic Spirit that Lancer was, the power of Miyamoto Musashi, the greatest swordsman in Japan. But first, a test of temperance.

"Hey there, gorgeous!" shouted Saber, resting her katana lazily on her shoulders.

Saber was right. Tonight, Lancer had taken off the mask around her mouth, and without it, her face truly was a gorgeous sight to behold.

But Lancer wasn't having any of that. The Knight of the Lance kept her stoic composure as she slowly approached Saber, her lance at the ready.

"Why don't you tell me your name and I'll tell you mine!" teased Saber. Lancer was less than three meters away, but her katana still strung over her shoulders.

Lancer frowned, visibly annoyed by Saber.

"... Like hell I would just tell you name!" growled Lancer indignantly.

In a blinding quick flash of red, Lancer made the first move. She thrust the barbed blade of her spear mercilessly at Saber's undefended chest.

Saber responded with an equally quick parry. The clash of their weapons produced a shower of sparks and Saber grinned.

The Heroic Spirit of the Sword defended herself not with her katana on her shoulders, but with the shorter wakizashi from her waist in a smooth, diagonal draw-cut with her left hand. Saber wasn't just skilled in the use of one sword. Miyamoto Musashi was the both master and founder of Niten Ichi-Ryuu, the art of dual-wielding both the katana and wakizashi.

"Whoops, seems like you're wide open, girl!" scoffed Saber.

Seizing her opening, Saber brought her longer katana down from its perch on her shoulder.

Lancer scowled and was forced to meet Saber's attack with the blunt end of her spear. But the second she did so, her strength ebbed momentarily from the barbed blade of her spear and that was all Saber needed. Her wakizashi moved in to assault Lancer's on her unguarded left side, which forced Lancer to disengage completely.

Saber smiled in satisfaction. Everything was going as she expected, she was dictating the pace of the duel and Lancer was being constantly forced to be on defensive. But simply showing her prowess with the sword wasn't enough for Saber. She wanted her enemy to come at her on full tilt.

"So that's all there is to the legendary Gáe Bolg?" taunted Saber, grinning at Shirou behind her. "Oh, I get it now! You're Cú Chulainn aren't you? Though I seem to remember my Master saying that Cú Chulainn was a dude - "

Lancer dove in and struck at Saber's chest once again with extreme prejudice. This time, she kept her distance so that Saber's wakizashi was safely out of striking range. Saber quickly realized that this was a stalemate - Lancer would continually overwhelm her with the superior reach of her spear, Gáe Bolg and she would be forced to tirelessly defend against her furious, continuous strikes. For her to change the status quo, she needed to get innovative. She sheathed her wakizashi and swapped it out for a second katana, that extra bit of reach could be the difference between victory or defeat in the hands of an expert like herself.

"I was expecting much more from the wielder of such a legendary spear," taunted Saber once again. "Seems like there really is nothing more to Scáthach than just a pretty face."

Saber's words rang a bell in Shirou's head. Of course this Lancer was Scáthach, the Witch of Dunscaith and Queen of the Land of Shadows. Shirou was already familiar with her student Cú Chulainn, Lancer in the Fifth Holy Grail War, he had his heart pierced by Cú Chulainn. As mentor and teacher to Cú Chulainn, it made perfect sense that she too would wield Gáe Bolg. But was that all there was to Scáthach? It felt all too simple to Shirou.

Lancer's attacks increased in furiosity in response to Saber's insults. Her attacks were becoming more frequent and telegraphed, such that Saber began to notice a pattern and an opening on Lancer's left.

"Hohoho, the way you're hitting me right now. You really _are_ Scáthach aren't you?" chuckled Saber. Her voice was louder than their clashing weapons. "Well then, as promised, I'll tell you mine. My formal name is Shinmen Musashi no Kami Fujiwara no Harunobu, but for you sweetie, just Saber is fine - "

"I don't know how many duels you've been in," growled Lancer. "But there usually isn't this much _talking_!"

Lancer sprang headfirst into Saber's striking range and Saber was taken aback momentarily by Lancer's decision. Saber parried Gáe Bolg's lancing attack and swung her other katana straight for Lancer's unguarded left waist. Before the sword could rend Lancer's body in half, there was a brilliant flash of red light and a _second_ spear appeared in Lancer's left hand. Saber barely managed to parry the second spear off-course, but while this spear was shorter in length, one of its unusually long barbs at its tip grazed Saber cheek as it passed.

The Servants disengaged once again. Saber wiped the blood off her cheek with the detached blue sleeve of her kimono and smiled at Lancer.

"Hahaha, now _that's_ the Lancer I hoped to face tonight. You were off to a slow start, but it's nice to see that you've finally showed up... Shishou!" Saber complimented with a wide grin on her face.

"Hmmm, you're no slouch either Saber," praised Lancer. The Queen of Dunscaith finally let up and betrayed a satisfied smile on her face. "Your legend precedes you, clearly. But there can only be one winner..."

"Me." declared both Servants in unison.

Lancer spun both spears in a brilliant flourish and took on an offensive stance, the longer Gáe Bolg in her right and the shorter Gáe Bolg Alternative on her left. Saber did the same with both her katanas, except now her right katana was lit with aquamarine flames and her left was lit with scarlet flames, highlighting their hamon lines where the blades were differentially hardened and the wave-like patterns that spanned the length of her katanas.

Suddenly, Saber felt a wave of pulsating energy coming from the shipping containers just ten meters away. Saber reached out to Shirou with her mind and spoke. She was certain that her opponent, Lancer was doing the exact same thing with her Master.

 _Master, did you feel that?_

 _Yeah. But it's impossible -_

 _And yet here we are. Let Alli-chan know about this. The Grail... its here._

* * *

"Allison, we have a problem," Shirou reported.

"Problem? What problem?" came Allison's reply over his earpiece.

"The Grail. There's no need to search for it. Its somewhere here in the center," exclaimed Shirou, he could feel the artifact emitting wave upon wave of energy. "Both Saber and I can feel its presence from where we are - "

"Fuck!" cursed Allison over the comms.

"Call Assassin in," demanded Shirou. "Tell him to support Saber - "

"CASTER! S-#$ RO(^... R #$N!"

An ear-piercing screech sounded over his earpiece and he instinctively dug it out from his ears so that it wouldn't burn out his ear drums. Allison's last transmission was choppy at best. From her first message it was clear that she was attacked by Caster, but the second... Shirou had the fleeting suspicion that she was telling him to run, but his intuition told him to do otherwise. Mana flowed through his Circuits and he shouted:

"Trace... On!"

There was a blinding flash of blue light and a pair of falchions materialized in his hands. One black as night, and the other white as snow. These twin swords were Shirou's go-to projections, he had the motion of projecting them beaten into his head over the years of practice and by now was mere muscle-memory to him. Judging from the sound and rhythm of the person's footsteps, Shirou could tell that it was not a Servant, but a Master, an armed Master at that.

Shirou spun around to meet the incoming attack with both his swords.

Sparks ignited as their weapons collided into each other. But it only lasted for total of one second, for _both_ of Shirou's swords shattered into a million fragments as the blades bit into each other.

Shirou's eyes widened in disbelief. But before he could call ' _trace on'_ to project a new pair of swords to defend himself, he was stunned by the sight of his attacker.

She was a gorgeous girl with short, flame-coloured hair and had resolute, brown eyes. However, Shirou's own eyes were transfixed not on her pretty face nor even her lithe, athletic body, but the twin swords she held in her hands. One black as night and the other white as snow, both were emblazoned with Yin Yang symbols by their hilts. This girl was unmistakably holding -

"Kanshou... and Bakuya!"

* * *

 _Author's Notes_

Once again, thank you guys _so much_ for reading my work.

First up, I want to say how much I appreciate the absolutely scathing review Iota-Cassiopeia has left me on my opening chapter. I have taken his suggestion and moved the Servant and Master's info away from the end of the chapter. I agree that it did take away the suspense of discovering the Servant's identities as readers, but I felt that the Fate series has never been about concealing Servant's identities for the audience in fact it was quite the opposite. So for those of you who would like that information, its on my profile now and for those of you who would prefer the suspense, be sure to stay away.

Next, is with regard to Iota-Cassiopeia's comment on how I handled Rin. I apologize if I made her feel out-of-character, putting the plot before the characters is an amateur writing mistake. But in my defense, in this fic, ten years have passed since we met the Rin we know and love in F/SN UBW and this is how I imagined her character is at this moment in time. She's grown up and she's a nicer person. Less tsun and more dere.

Lastly, is with regard to how often I will be posting. I will try my best to do weeklies, but it's been really tough to pump out 6000 or so words of satisfactory content per chapter and then getting cross-eyed with reading my own work, so I won't be making any promises here.

Cheerio~


	3. Chapter 3

**\- Chapter 3 -**

* * *

 _Author's Notes_

This chapter took me way longer to finish than I expected, and writer's block definitely didn't help out either. Anyways, this chapter is heavy on action and subversions... So yeah hope you guys enjoy :)

* * *

Leonardo Aurum surveyed the battlefield from complete safety atop the cargo cranes.

The eighth richest man in the world had a distinct obsession for all things gold, even his last name Aurum was Latin for gold. His brilliant blonde hair whipped around in the wind, his sapphire eyes bright with fanaticism, his gold cloak and gold rings complemented the scarlet Command Seals at the back of his right hand - a winged serpent devouring its own tail.

His exploits as the most accomplished alchemist since the Einzberns led many from the Mage's Association to dub him King Midas II. While King Midas of the legend was cursed with uncontrollable transmutation, his modern incarnate had complete control over his golden touch. With the guidance of the Mage's Association and Lord Auteur, young Leonardo had the inner workings of his magecraft distilled down to a science.

As a token of reciprocation, Leonardo fed a significant portion of his criminally bottomless capital back to Lord Auteur, proving once and for all that steel wins battles but gold wins wars. They were winning the civil war by simply buying out the opposition - flooding them with so much material wealth that they no longer had the motivation nor felt it reasonable to continue to be embroiled in some stupid war. His summoning of Scáthach into the Lancer class put the final nail in the coffin that accelerated the demise of Lord El-Melloi II's faction during the last days of the civil war.

Leonardo turned his head and spoke to the boy in a kabuki mask behind him.

"Maggot," remarked Leonardo. "Lancer is taking too long. Send Rider in to finish the job."

Ryuuzaki cursed under his breath. He hated being called 'Maggot', but then again, no sane person would. His fingers curled, ready to snap together to trigger his Mystic Code but he lost all sensation in his right hand - Leonardo had transmuted his hand into pure gold. The alchemist had taken steps to ensure that the boy toed the line under his command.

Ryuuzaki sighed and give the signal to his Servant. The knight in shining dragon armour nodded and vanished in flourish of silver starlight. Once satisfied, Leonardo crushed a shimmering emerald in his palm into dust, lifting the curse on Ryuuzaki and returning the boy the ability to flex his fingers.

"What is that I hear from you, Maggot?" smirked Leonardo.

"I-It's nothing Sir," replied Ryuuzaki, avoiding Leonardo's gaze.

"I hope that's true, lowborn scum... For your sister's sake," said Leonardo, his sapphire eyes burned with sadistic pleasure. "How many more fingernails do you thi - "

"We _will_ have the Grail tonight Sir," interrupted Ryuuzaki, desperate to change the conversation. "Everything will go as planned by Lord Auteur - "

Leonardo threw his head back and laughed, a sadistic cackle that made Ryuuzaki's pale skin crawl.

"Nonono, we're going to do something different tonight," said Leonardo and his lips curled. "Rider will use his Noble Phantasm to eradicate our enemies tonight - "

"Sir, for our safety, for _everyone's_ safety, I cannot allow tha - "

Leonardo's face contorted in anger and the aristocrat lashed out with unbridled rage. From the depths of his jacket he drew a golden dagger and pressed it into Ryuuzaki's throat.

"Then you have outlived your usefulness," declared Leonardo.

"But Rider hasn't," reminded Ryuuzaki. The dagger drew a sliver of blood as it rubbed against his Adam's apple when he spoke. "And like it or not, I am his Master."

"I was hoping you'll say that," smiled Leonardo. "We shall see... We _shall_ see..."

The alchemist spun dagger around his fingers and stowed it back into the depths of his gold cloak.

"Tonight I will bear witness to the power of the wicked dragon," declared Leonardo, gloating over the battlefield once again. "And they shall burn."

* * *

"Kanshou... and Bakuya!"

Shirou instantaneously recognized the twin swords that pulverized his projections - Kanshou and Bakuya.

This girl... was she also a practioner of projection magecraft? But with Shirou's affinity with swords as his origin coupled with his years of practice with projecting Kanshou and Bakuya, it was unlikely his projection of a sword would be destroyed that easily by another projection. No... There was a simpler explanation. The twin swords in his opponent's hands had a sparkle in their workmanship that his own projections were fatally lacking.

"The originals...?"

The girl ignored his question and lunged at Shirou.

"Trace... On!"

Once again, his projection shattered upon making contact with their doppelganger.

From their second exchange, Shirou started to comprehend the flaw in his creations. His swords were merely the projections of a projection. Archer had encountered the original blades sometime in his lifetime, but Shirou had yet to do the same. He could almost hear Archer's mocking voice ringing inside his head. _Catch up to me? In your dreams, you worthless copycat. That's what you are Emiya Shirou... a copy of a copy._

With only one sword left in hand, Shirou was forced to retreat into the cover of the warehouse. There was more to this girl besides simply possessing Kanshou and Bakuya. She fought with supernatural strength and agility magnitudes stronger than any Magi simply enhancing their limbs with mana, reminiscent of Souichirou Kuzuki who had his fighting prowess augmented by Medea, Caster of the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Shirou stared at the Command Seals at the back of his hand. With the power of a Command Seal he could summon Saber to defend him, but to be forced to expend a Command Seal this early into the Grail War... He stared at the girl approaching him and then back at the Command Seals, he had to make a decision.

He focused his thoughts onto the Command Seals and called out -

"There's no need to call for Saber, Emiya Shirou," said the girl. "You're not my enemy, I'm not here to kill you."

The girl stowed Kanshou and Bakuya behind her back, raising both palms up so that Shirou could see she meant no harm.

"My name's Crystal, I'm Caster's Master," said the girl. "Sorry for what I did out there. It was the only way I could get you in here without getting my head blown off by that gun-toting psycho up there."

So she _was_ Caster's Master, thought Shirou. On one hand he was proud that his assessment was spot-on, but on the other was suspicious why she chose to make contact with him now instead of responding to the Church's summons.

"You're... _Caster's_ Master? Why didn't you just meet us at the Church?" said Shirou.

"Because I don't trust the White Reaper," shrugged Crystal. "Or the Church."

"And I'm supposed to trust.. _you?_ "

"Has she told you her name? Her _real_ name." said Crystal, ignoring Shirou's question.

The pronoun game. Though Shirou could only assume that Crystal was referring to Allison.

"Not yet," confessed Shirou. "At least I don't think that's her real name."

"Do you know what's her wish from the Grail?" added Crystal.

Crystal had just opened an enormous can of worms, and she was absolutely right. Allison had not once mentioned what was the wish she wanted from the Greater Grail, neither had it ever occurred to Shirou that he needed to clarify it with her, but it never stopped him from trusting her.

"No she hasn't. But - "

"Why do you trust her? She could have squeezed the trigger and blown a hole in your face from up there you idiot," sighed Crystal, burying her face in her palm.

"Look, I spent a night at her place. She has had every chance to kill me - "

"That fast?" smirked Crystal, shooting Shirou a suggestive look with an eyebrow raised.

"No, it's not what you thi - "

"Listen here, my wish is simple. It's nothing. I'm in this Grail War to kill Lancer's Master. For that, I need your help. And Saber's too. You help me with that, the Grail is all your's. I'll even throw in these." explained Crystal.

She held out one of the two swords so that Shirou could see them.

"The _original_ Kanshou and Bakuya."

* * *

"Fuck!" cursed Allison, ramming her fists into the concrete.

The chalice's position was known to all Masters and Servants at the harbour tonight. Which meant that her plan to stall the other Servants so that Assassin could search the cargoes went out the window.

"You really should have chosen a better place to camp out," came an annoyingly arrogant voice behind her. "Choosing this position to observe the best vantage points... How _predictable_."

Allison wheeled around and saw a man in a white Taoist robe, leaning against the concrete wall leisurely fanning himself with a flamboyant hand fan made from white crane feathers that matched his robes.

From his mana signature, Allison could immediately tell he was a Servant. The moment she laid eyes on the Servant, her Clairvoyance as a Master revealed his parameters. This Servant had E ranks across the board, except for his Luck at A+ and his Mana that sat at an absurdly high rank of EX. Only one Servant class had their parameters distributed like this...

"Caster is here. Shirou, run!" commanded Allison over the comms.

Allison dropped the Remington 700 and pulled out her SBR AR-15.

 _Time Alter: Vorhersage Zwei!_

Time froze and Allison saw two seconds into the future. The blue projections that formed her Reality Marble showed that Caster would stand deathly still. Was this some kind of trick?

She burnt through a whole thirty minutes of her lifespan, altering time repeatedly just to see a total of three minutes into the future, but no matter what she did, the projections were always the same. Caster had no intention of doing anything. Perhaps he was talking, but the Reality Marble could only predict sensory input from her eyes.

Allison squeezed the trigger and fired five suppressed shots at Caster. Caster flicked his fan lazily and the resulting wind blew the bullet projectiles completely off their trajectory, blowing holes in the concrete but missing Caster entirely. Exhausted from her extended usage of Innate Time Control, Allison fell to her knees panting.

"Don't burn yourself out sweetheart," taunted Caster. "Not everything is about you. I'm actually here for Berserker. Would be a pity if - "

"SHUT UP!"

With lightning quick speed, the White Reaper threw a Black Key at Caster. Guided by her knowledge of the future, the Black Key soared through the air and hit its mark, piercing the space between Caster's eyes as he was monologuing. The Heroic Spirit of Sorcery burst into incandescent blue flames. Squinting her scarlet eyes to examine the flames, Allison realized that 'Caster' was nothing more than an enchanted straw man.

Allison tried to swear, but she collapsed onto the ground, shaking uncontrollably. Trying to stabilize her hand, Allison reached into her jacket pocket and withdrew an auto-injector filled with glowing green liquid. She rammed it into her thigh and felt the green fluid rush through her veins. Slowly she began to regain control of her arms, her legs and then her body.

Dull, blood-red miasma gathered as Assassin materialized.

"Master, are you oka - "

"It's becoming more frequent. How long am I left with?" asked Allison, gasping for air.

"Depends on how liberal you are with using Time Alter. Based on your current usage, I'll say you have about six days left." reported Assassin.

"Let's get this fucking Grail then. The more time I have to work with, the better - "

The ground trembled and the stairway to the roof was suddenly violently torn apart. Allison turned her head to see the monstrosity that now stood in its place.

Two men stood before her. One was a man in a black suit and top hat with angry red glyphs at the back of his palm, she immediately recognized as Bertrand Paulsen. The other was an unnaturally tall and heavily muscled man with tanned, copper skin dressed in regal, emerald green armour.

"Fuck..." cursed Allison for the second time.

Her scarlet eyes scanned the floor for the Remington 700. The key to making it out alive lay with one of five .30-06 Springfield cartridges she chambered into the bolt-action sniper. Both Allison and Assassin were on the same page, they called out to each other in unison -

 _The Origin Bullet_.

"Kill her..." ordered Bertrand Paulsen. "Berserker!"

The Mad Warrior let out an earthshaking primal roar and thundered straight towards Allison.

* * *

"Shirou!" yelled Saber.

Her Master was under assault by a girl with short, flame-coloured hair and they both disappeared into the warehouse. Saber tried to follow her Master into the warehouse, but a streaking black comet, packing the force of an artillery blast struck the ground ahead where Saber would have been.

A second comet whizzed through the sky, this time the arrow was headed straight towards Saber's head and she was forced to deflect it with her katana. Tracing the trajectory of the attacks to its source, she saw a muscular Servant with his face covered in a black shroud lined with gold trim watching the battlefield from his perch atop the peak of a container crane.

"Archer..." mouthed Saber in anger.

Silver starlight shimmered in the air as Saber's third opponent materialized behind her - Rider. A knight in silver dragon scale armour with tanned skin and bleached hair. In his right hand, his black cruciform sword was drawn and ready, the Heroic Spirit of the Mount approached her cautiously with abated breath, showing immense respect for his opponent. Everything had gone exactly as Allison had predicted. Saber would have to hold her own, outnumbered three against one.

Lancer slowly closed in on Saber armed with both her crimson spears. The smile on her face was replaced by one filled with sorrow. She too was not pleased that their duel had to be interrupted by both Archer and Rider. Saber could tell from her expression that her pride as a Heroic Spirit was wounded and Scáthach, the Queen of the Land of Shadows had lost all semblance of respect for her own Master.

"Saber... I know this isn't fair for you," began Lancer. "But we have our orders. I just want you to know... There is no dishonour going out like this. I wish things could have been different, but they aren't - "

"Pffffft...!" spat Saber. "Cut to the chase, Shishou."

"Sigh, all I want to say is... I wish you the best of luck, Musashi." said Lancer.

"Hehh, better watch that pretty face of your's eh, Shishou," chuckled Saber, the flames on her katanas burned brighter. "I would cry if you scarred my favourite thing about you!"

Saber wasn't going to let herself get boxed in by Lancer and Rider then slowly bombarded to death by Archer. She was going to make the first move. If she was going out, it would be on her own terms. With a powerful burst of mana she launched herself at Lancer with both katanas.

Sparks erupted as Saber and Lancer crossed weapons for the hundredth time. Saber quickly recognized that as long as she kept close proximity to Lancer, she was accomplishing two things. First, she was taking away Lancer's advantage with the longer reach on both her spears, but more importantly Saber was also forcing Archer to cease his fire to avoid fratricide.

Up against the full wrath of the Fifth Form of Niten Ichi-Ryuu, Saber could feel that Lancer was ever so slightly having trouble adjusting to Saber's sudden change in fighting form, such that her lances were coming in with less confidence and even some semblance of confusion with her strikes. That lapse in combat prowess was all Saber needed to get back into the driver's seat, aggressively dictating the flow of the duel by constantly going on the offensive. She understood what was at stake, she understood every second she spent fighting was another second not defending her Master. She had to deal with Lancer and Rider as quickly as possible so that she could get to Shirou. Her reputation as the greatest Samurai in Japan depended on it.

But then Saber also had Rider to contend with.

The dragon knight's footwork was markedly less agile than Lancer's, but his blows with the greatsword were more powerful, and by extension more dangerous. Rider's attacks knocked the breath from Saber's lungs every time their swords so much as made any contact with each other, any one successful strike from his sword would easily tear her fragile torso open from shoulder to hip and end her run to attain the Holy Grail.

Throughout their exchange, Saber noticed that Rider had at least two chances to cut her down from behind while she was pre-occupied with Lancer, but he chose not to. Saber deduced that this Heroic Spirit's honour as a knight held him back ever so slightly, preventing him from attacking his opponents from behind. Saber wasn't a knight, she wasn't bound by such frivolous chivalry. As such she was going to fully capitalize on Rider's mistaken ideals to tear her way back to Shirou.

Mana rushed through her body as she darted forward to exchange blows with Lancer, deliberately exposing her unguarded back towards Rider, who hesitated once again to go in for the kill. Detecting the immense surge of magical energy, Lancer quickly disengaged and distanced herself from Saber, but Rider had decided to commit to an attack with his cruciform greatsword.

Saber's lips curled, her plan was working.

She dug her feet firmly into the ground and wheeled around to meet Rider's sword. As she did so, the Heroic Spirit of the Sword called out her Noble Phantasm.

" _I place my trust in Tenjin of the Tenmen Shrine, Deity of Absolute Freedom, Niou Kurikara, Shotenshou! I draw my blade... Ishana Daitenshou!_ "

For a moment, time itself seemed to freeze. Amidst the brilliant burst of mana Saber was emitting, the massive silhouette of a four-armed giant loomed behind Saber as she ran her blade through Rider four times with incredible speed and strength. She struck twice with each of her katanas, and then twice again with each of her wakizashis. An even brighter burst of mana ignited and she held up her katana high with both hands preparing herself for the fifth strike, but Saber noticed something was wrong.

The four strikes from her A-ranked Noble Phantasm should have easily torn through any Servant's flesh or at the very least resulted in some serious damage to their Spirit Core. But Rider was merely thrown five meters away from Saber where stood his ground firmly without sustaining so much as a nosebleed.

Saber's eyes widened in disbelief. Pulling out her Noble Phantasm was her ace in the hole, it was all or nothing. With Lancer disengaging from her lock and Rider thrown so far back from her Noble Phantasm and then Saber committing so heavily into her fifth strike, she knew there was no avoiding the attack that came next.

A shower of shimmering black comets blotted out the silver moonlight as a thousand arrows traced a graceful but deadly arc over the sky and rained down onto the battlefield.

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Archer's arrows detonated upon contact, kicking up mounds of dirt and rubble. Saber tried to dodge and slash blindly, but she knew eventually she would be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of arrows. Amidst the fog, she started to notice something rather peculiar at the corner of her eye.

A bearded man dressed in a white Taoist robe slowly appeared before her in the fog. From the immense amount of mana the man was emitting, Saber could tell he was a Servant. This Servant was the perfect amalgamation of confidence, intellect and even an air of mysticism. Audaciously sitting with his legs crossed while sipping his smoking hot tea by an ornate, oriental tea table fashioned from oak, this man must either be the smartest man in the room or a complete, irrational idiot. The man fanned himself leisurely with his flamboyant handheld fan made out of crane feathers, completely oblivious to the endless shower of arrows that seemed to magically avoid him.

"Well come on darling, it's a tea party don't just stand there," smiled the Servant. "Oh, where are my _manners_. I'm Caster by the way."

Saber eyed Caster and his tea table with suspicion. Was this some kind of elaborate scheme? Was the tea laced with poison? Afterall, Caster did look like a schemer. But seeing as her only other option was a terrible and painful death by arrows, she sat herself down but refused to take a sip of tea.

"Is all this..." began Saber, pointing at her surroundings as she spoke.

"Safe?" finished Caster. "Yeah of course it's safe. It's my Noble Phantasm, darling. Let's just say it's an immunity to arrows."

The explosions ceased and the fog began to lift slowly, revealing to Lancer, Rider and Archer that the arrows had done absolutely nothing.

"You haven't touched your tea, darling," chuckled Caster. "Our Masters have come to a truce - "

"But we haven't," growled Saber.

"Better to make a friend than a foe right now wouldn't you say so?" smiled Caster, surveying all four Servants around him. "If you change your mind, just finish that cup of tea."

Caster leapt to his feet. With a simple flick of his fan, an excess of a hundred black arrows levitated off the ground. Upon another flick, the hundred arrow heads spun around to face their target - Archer.

"Tsk tsk. You disappoint me, Archer," taunted Caster. "Is _that_ how the strongest Servant in the Sixth Holy Grail War fights?"

A third flick of his fan and the hundred arrows launched themselves back towards their origin, but Archer simply dissipated in a shimmer of black starlight. The arrows, with their target lost, simply fell like twigs to the ground with a dull clatter. Archer's Master had forcefully recalled his Servant with the power of a Command Seal.

"Enough games! Lancer, Rider. Finish this senseless battle. Use your Noble Phantasms!" boomed a voice enhanced by magecraft.

Rider growled as he flared up with red energy, raising his greatsword high into the air with his shivering hands, trying desperately to resist the power of a Command Seal, but to no avail.

Saber turned to face Lancer, who was also engulfed by a similar angry red energy. From what Shirou had warned her, Gáe Bolg - The Spear that Pierces with Death, was the Noble Phantasm of Scáthach capable of reversing cause and effect, a fatal strike to the heart was guaranteed as long it's true name was called. Ways to avoid such a deadly attack did exist, but it hinged on a Servant's Luck stat. With her Luck at B, Saber wasn't prepared to gamble her life on the roll of a dice. She picked up the tea cup and drank it all in a single gulp, sealing her truce with Caster.

Caster smiled and called out the name of his Noble Phantasm.

"Fog of War - The Fleet of Endless Strawmen!"

A thousand copies of Saber materialized on the battlefield with a flick of Caster's fan in a shimmer of dazzling white starlight. Lancer's scarlet eyes darted around in confusion, unable to zero in on her true target.

Though they were all worthless strawman copies of Saber, the only way Lancer would be able to tell them apart was to destroy them with Gáe Bolg one strawman at a time. Caster had devised the perfect deterrence to the most deadly Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm, Gáe Bolg - by giving Lancer a thousand units to choose from. Saber was thoroughly impressed, though she had a feeling that Caster deliberately chose such a flamboyant solution to display his love for flair and style points.

Lancer broke into a sprint and then leapt high into the air, arching her right arm that held her demonic spear backwards as if drawing a bow and using her left arm to guide her aim. Gáe Bolg began to surge with an intense spiral of swirling red energy as mana coursed through both Lancer and her spear.

 _No,_ thought Saber. She was missing out on something. The legend of Gáe Bolg didn't simply entail it as an Anti-Unit spear. Gáe Bolg's true strength as a Noble Phantasm was as a throwing weapon, realizing it's full potential as an Anti-Army attack - The Soaring Spear that Strikes with Death. Scáthach had no interest in wasting time by taking out the strawmen one by one, she was going to eliminate _all_ of them at once.

"Gáe... Bolg!" yelled Lancer as she threw her spear to ground with all her might.

The spear distorted time itself as it hurtled through the air, visible to the naked eye only as a red blur. A single cursed spear that erupted into multiple barbed spearheads raining death down on Saber below.

There was only one thing Saber could to do. Saber shut her eyes and cleared her mind.

* * *

 _Time Alter: Vorhersage Drei!_

Time froze and Allison traded thirty seconds of her lifespan to see three seconds into the future. Her arterioles started to rend themselves apart from her extended usage of time alteration and the White Reaper could feel herself bleeding from every other inch of her body.

Even with knowledge of the future, she only barely managed to roll out of Berserker's warpath. But the result of such an ad hoc maneuver, she ended up putting more distance between herself and the Remington 700.

Assassin darted around Berserker, slashing the emerald-armoured general with his enchanted M9 bayonet, trying to draw his attention away from Allison. Each slash should have been a fatally crippling blow, severing and then binding the victim's Magic Circuits by actualizing his Origin. But Berserker simply had no Magic Circuits for Assassin exploit. Every deep gash made by Assassin's Phantasm Punishment - Mystery Bisection was instantaneously healed not by his Master's magecraft, but by Berserker's own innate healing factor. Though it was not usual for Servants in the Berserker class to possess some form of regeneration, this Berserker's healing factor was so powerful and rapid that Assassin concluded it could only be his Noble Phantasm. This Berserker was a Heroic Spirit with legendary healing anecdotes.

 _Master, Phantasm Punishment isn't working on Berserker. This guy is insanely powerful but he's got no Magic Circuits._

 _What?! Then going for the Origin Bullet would be pointless too -_

 _No. Just because Berserker is immune to my attacks, doesn't mean that his Master is too. To maintain such a powerful Servant like Berserker..._

 _His Master must be expending a large amount of mana._

 _Exactly. Good to know you're keeping up. I'll try to hold Berserker away from you for as long as I can._

Allison made a beeline for the Remington 700. But just to ensure her route would be safe, she activated Time Alter once again. Time froze and Allison saw two seconds into future, but the projections were horribly distorted. Allison's Reality Marble showed her projections based on her visual acuity, now that it was impaired by the blood in her eyes, the future became near impossible to see through the distortion. Even then, Allison could make out that a gaping black hole awaited her where the Remington 700 was lying. She needed to make a decision.

There was a flourish of green starlight as Berserker summoned his weapon - a gargantuan golden halberd adorned with a pair of intertwining green dragons. Even with reasoning impaired by Mad Enhancement, this Berserker retained an astonishing level of intuition, he understood what was at stake. The Mad Warrior threw the halberd at the Remington 700 with such strength that it caved in a large portion of the roof and Allison was forced to dive into the crevasse after the Remington 700.

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

"Fuck!" cursed Allison as she held up the remains of the bolt-action sniper rifle.

The rifle was reduced to a collection of walnut splinters held together by twisted metal tubings. The bullets in its 5-round internal magazine were jammed, those that weren't were effectively empty bullet shells as they had gunpowder leaking from its casing. More blood from her ruined arterioles on her forehead further obscured her vision - Time Alter was no longer an option.

The ground trembled as Berserker leapt into view, but Assassin was nowhere to be found. How foolish she must been to have thought that Assassin, the weakest of the seven Servant classes would be able to hold up against Berserker, who was arguably the strongest of the seven -

 _Master...!_

 _Assassin?! Where the hell are yo -_

 _I need you to stay right where you are. There, that's perfect. Bait him in. I've got something that might just work._

 _What? Where the hell are you?_

 _Not anywhere near. You need to call me in._

Calling Assassin in from afar meant only one thing.

Allison raised her right hand so that she could see the red glyphs carved into the back of her palm. The symbol of a Master - three claims to absolute obedience a Master had over their Servants. She focused her thoughts onto the glyphs and spoke the words:

"I order you by the power of a Command Seal. Come... Assassin!"

The first of three rose petals glowed and then vanished from the back of her palm.

A blinding burst of red light illuminated the hallway and the Heroic Spirit of Assassination materialized before Allison. In his hands, Assassin held a massive black spear - no, judging from the fletching at tail end of the weapon she realized it wasn't a spear but an arrow so large it could have been a spear or the bolt from a ballista.

Assassin let the bandages around his face fall to the ground so that he could speak the words clearly:

" _Time Alter: Square Accel!_ "

Assassin's mastery over Innate Time Control was more powerful than Allison's by an order of magnitude, after all it had been the life's work of the Emiya family. By accelerating the flow of time in his body by an exponential rate of four, Assassin was capable of moving faster than the speed of sound. Assassin broke the sound barrier, clearing the distance to Berserker in an instant and plunged the arrow deep into the Mad Warrior's shoulder.

The arrow dealt more damage than Assassin's enchanted dagger could ever hope to achieve. Berserker roared and started to thrash about in blind rage, forcing Assassin into evasive maneuvers to return to his Master.

Whatever the arrow was, it was capable of piercing Berserker's hide and severing his flesh down to the bone, but that wasn't all. Berserker's incredible healing factor Noble Phantasm immediately began regeneration to mend the wound. But as soon as the virgin flesh made contact with the arrowhead, a hissing sound issued from the wound and the newly minted muscles fell apart like melted cheese. Berserker let out one final primal roar and vanished in a flourish of emerald starlight.

"The arrow... That was poison on the tip?" murmured Allison, wiping the blood from her eyes. "A Heroic Spirit with a legend of healing, but also a terrible weakness to poison."

"And a powerful Archer with a legend of using poisoned arrowheads," croaked Assassin, lowering his hood. "We may have just figured out the identities of Berserker _and_ Archer."

* * *

Saber slowly opened her eyes and grinned at Lancer.

It worked. She emerged completely unscathed from the attack. She knew of only one way to deal with Gáe Bolg and she took it. The Personal Skill of Miyamoto Musashi - Nothingness. The ultimate mental state that any swordsman could attain. Drawing from the concept of Suigetsu of the Yagyuu Shinkage-ryu, one that had attained nothingness is therefore invincible, allowing Saber to take the full brunt of Gáe Bolg's attack head-on.

However, since her body was only a provisional existence granted by the Greater Grail, she could only use this ability once for the entire duration of the Grail War. Saber had hoped to save such a powerful negation till later in the Grail War, but decided on the fly that Scáthach was a worthy enough an opponent for it to be used.

"Gotta try harder, Shishou!" shouted Saber, resting her katana lazily across her shoulder once again.

"You're one tough opponent, Saber. I'll give you that," praised Lancer. Her smile had returned once again to her face.

The sickening sound of blade against flesh interrupted Saber and Lancer's banter.

Rider ran his cruciform sword violently through his chest. The dragon knight growled in pain as his boiling blood burst from the gaping wound with the force of an erupting geyser. As the burning hot blood drained from his veins, Rider seemed to lose the tan-colouring of his skin, becoming increasingly pale.

Amidst what Saber could only assume was excruciating pain, she could make out the dragon knight mouthing his plea:

"Run..." muttered Rider.

A bolt of ghastly green lightning came from the heavens and struck the pool of hot, boiling blood. The resounding thunder that followed had an uncanny resemblance to the thunderous roar of a dragon. Rider's blood began to bubble and swirl as though it had a life of its own. A massive three-fingered claw emerged from the depths of Rider's blood and anchored themselves deep into the concrete floor. Whatever monstrosity the dragon knight had called forth with blood magic was clawing itself out from the depths of the swirling nether.

An ugly black snout protruded from the darkness, followed by a great horned face with a pair of wicked, gleaming green eyes. The beast had a long, serpentine neck and a massive body covered by malicious spines and gleaming black scales thicker than any cuirass forged by men.

A dragon.

From snout to tail, Saber judged that the dragon was over 130 meters in length. The dragon let out an ear-splitting triumphant roar and unfurled its immensely extensive wings, dark as ebony with a wingspan as large as the length of the dragon itself.

Fafnir glared down at the puny, bite-sized Heroic Spirits that littered the ground at his clawed feet. The wicked dragon parted his jaws to reveal not only the rows of serrated teeth that were sharp as swords, but the ghastly green glow of dragon fire brewing in the depths of the dragon's belly.

* * *

 _Author's Notes_

As always, thanks for reading my work.

There are a few things I want to talk about. First is Caster. I'm pretty sure most of you guessed, and you would be right that he is Zhuge Liang from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. For those of you who are familiar with Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang borrowing 100,000 arrows with a fleet of strawboats while sipping tea is one of his biggest exploits and this isn't one of Type-Moon El-Melloi Zhuge Liang's Noble Phantasm so I don't think Type-Moon did the best job in adapting Zhuge Liang's most famous legends.

Next is Fafnir. Yes, he's in this and I think the foreshadowing was quite literal back in Chapter 2. Anyways, all I can say without spoiling the fic moving forward is that the contract between Rider and the twins is not normal. I always picture my fic adapted into a Fate series anime, and having a dragon in it _is_ very cinematic and he is going to cause _a lot_ of problems.

 ***Edit* The Rupture:** I don't think that's really a problem because (1) Saber never completed the fifth strike with her Noble Phantasm, so it wouldn't have been a true A-ranked attack, (2) Type-Moon states that "All A-rank attacks are effectively reduced to E-rank attacks", but Siegfried as Rider and not Saber has a slightly more powerful, more specialized version of the Armour of Fafnir in this fic. I apologize if I've never made it clear enough for you guys in my writing. Thanks The Rupture for pointing it out anyways :)

Fafnir's size. He is 130 meters, 426 ft in length with an equally large wingspan. It's important to point out that other than his colour scheme he shares no other visual similarity to the Type-Moon Fafnir, rather I based him on Smaug from Peter Jackson's The Desolation of Smaug. I find it poetic how J.R.R Tolkien drew inspiration from Fafnir to create Smaug in The Hobbit, and in this fic I base Fafnir's appearance on Smaug. The circle is now complete.

Finally I want to talk about Shirou. Yes, Crystal is telling the truth, those are the original Kanshou and Bakuya, but this is not necessarily how Archer EMIYA came across the swords in his lifetime. Since this is an UBW sequel, this _will_ be an AU of future events after UBW and will tie up some of the plot points we already know from the TV-series of UBW which I draw my limited Nasu knowledge of. I don't think I can say any more than that without spoiling Shirou's arc moving forward.

Hope you guys have enjoyed reading this fic so far :)


	4. Chapter 4

**\- Chapter 4 -**

 ***Updated the A/N section***

* * *

 _Snow. A boundless field of white stretched on for as far as the eye could see._

 _On a cloudless day, free from the merciless winds of winter - a day very much like today, the Father loved to show his Daughter the world outside the castle._

 _She was his world. And he was her's. For her, he laid down his cloak and gun and put his life behind him so that he could play the role of a loving father. Ironic. Because to create the perfect world for her, he picked up his cloak and gun and was prepared to wade through the river of blood once again. Nothing was too high a price to create the world he imagined for his beloved daughter._

 _"Oh, I found one," said the Father._

 _"No way! Where?!" piped the Daughter, doubling back to her father. "I'm sure I didn't miss any!"_

 _The Father took a knee and pointed his finger at a single branch amongst a forest of barren, leafless trees._

 _"That's today's first walnut bud," smirked the Father with his nose in the air. "That's one point for me."_

 _The Daughter made a pouty face and flailed her tiny little arms. A sight that made the Father smile unknowingly, but also dug at his heartstrings._

 _At eight years of age, his daughter weighed less than even his loaded hunting pistol. She was a head shorter than most eight year-olds and had barely seen any of the outside world. What made it worse for the father, was the heart-wrenching knowledge that his daughter would never properly grow up to become a normal girl, but it never stopped him from loving her any less, in fact it further fueled his determination to create that utopia._

 _"I won't lose!" declared the Daughter, waddling deeper into the forest._

 _"I found one too!" yelled the Daughter_ _triumphantly. But her triumph was short-lived._

 _"But I've found two now," came her father's voice._

 _The Father wore a mischievous grin on his face as his daughter waddled through the thick snow to confirm his find._

 _"Eh... But that's not a walnut branch," protested the Daughter. But she wasn't too certain of it herself._

 _The bud that her father had found was more elongated than the typical walnut bud she was familiar with. Her face soured. She wasn't at all amused that her father had cheated._

 _"No. But you see Illya that's - "_

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

"Master... _Master!_ "

Allison shook her head in frustration. A dream. A memory. How long was she out for?

It was only when a sliver of slick, red liquid that stung her eyes did she realize that she needed to wipe the of blood from her platinum coloured brow that was now dyed red like her irises.

"You okay, Master?" croaked Assassin. "Now's not the time to be spacing out. We have a... rather _large_ problem out there."

Allison turned to face the dust-covered windows. Her inability to see the harbour spoke dozens about the massive black dragon that eclipsed a better part of the battlefield.

"I'm going to get the i8," coughed Allison. "Disable every vehicle in a fifty meter radius around the harbour. I don't want anybody chasing us. "

Her body groaned with the effort of getting to her feet. Her knees trembled, a direct result of her excessive loss of blood and it didn't take long before they finally buckled. But Assassin quickly grabbed Allison by her arm and she wrapped her arm around Assassin's shoulder for support.

The pair made an awkward three-legged limp towards the lift at the end of the hallway. Getting to the i8 was Allison's only chance of making it out alive. Once in the supercar, her incapacitated body would no longer be a liability.

"Master, you're not going to - "

"We're not leaving without the Grail."

The hallway echoed with the hair-raising screech of Assassin's boots on the concrete floor as he forced the pair to come to a complete halt.

"No," decided Assassin. "You're not doing this alone. As your - "

Allison rolled her eyes and extended her right arm. The remaining two rose petals glowed as she focused her thoughts on them.

"By the power of my second Command Seal - " commanded Allison, her overbearing voice drowned out Assassin's protests.

"Alright alright, you win," sighed Assassin, ruffling his bone white hair, visibly annoyed by how stubborn his Master was yet was unable to do anything.

Satisfied with her Servant's obedience, Allison lowered her hand and the Command Seals lost their glow.

"Save that Command Seal for an emergency. Promise me you'll be - "

"Promise me you'll do your job," pleaded Allison.

Assassin took a long, deep sigh and stared into Allison's crimson eyes. And for a moment noticed that there was a silver shimmer at the corner of the cold-blooded assassin's eye.

* * *

Fafnir opened his fanged jaws and the wicked dragon let loose a torrent of wicked, green flames that decimated everything in its path.

" _Come forth, O' Eastern Wind,_ " recited Caster, directing the flow of the wind with his crane-feathered fan. "Phantasmal Wind - The Wind and Fire of Red Cliff!"

Dragon fire parted around Caster and the three other Heroic Spirits like an inverted 'V', as if an invisible force field had been raised around them. Enchanted green flames licked and spat as they super heated the cargoes, causing some to twist and deform while others straight-out melted as if they were made out of candle wax. The Servants were left unmolested, though the intense, sweltering heat was slowly beginning to cook them alive within their confine.

The words "Red Cliff" in his Noble Phantasm immediately revealed Caster's true identity.

The Battle of Red Cliff was a legendary battle where the overwhelmingly superior numbers of the warlord, Cao Cao was defeated in a devastating fire as orchestrated by the master strategist, Zhuge Liang. A massive fire guided so perfectly by the eastern wind that many believed it was Zhuge Liang himself whose mystical powers held influence over the weather itself. As a Servant, this legend manifested in Caster as a powerful affinity to the elements of Wind and Fire.

Lancer glowed with violet energy. The spear in her left hand vanished and eighteen Celtic runes materialized in a circle around her to take its place. She waved her hand and the runes rearranged themselves so that they fortified Caster's wind barrier against the fire.

"A master spearwoman AND a master spellcaster," complimented Caster. "Aren't you one talented heroine."

"I'm not a hero. Not yet at least," said Lancer with a grin. "Besides you won't last another minute without me helping."

"You underestimate my power, sweetheart," chuckled Caster. "Why are you helping out eh? Doesn't your Master's master want us dead?"

"I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do," frowned Lancer. "Besides, that dragon doesn't seem terribly interested in an alliance with me or Rider."

"How about a Command Seal? What's stopping - "

"My Master is down to his last Command Seal, so he won't be making any rash decisions," replied Lancer with a wide grin on her face. "Though technically you aren't out of the woods yet Caster."

Realizing that a frontal assault was taking too long to incinerate his enemies, Fafnir flapped his enormous leathery wings and took to the sky. Every flap of the dragon's massive dread wings produced a gale force wind that forced the Servants to dig their weapons into the ground for support.

"Alright," demanded Caster. "Anyone here hiding some magical dragon-slaying Noble Phantasm we should know about? Now's a good time to fess up."

Caster surveyed the three Heroic Spirits whilst stroking his black beard.

"I do," groaned Rider. The knight strained with the effort to even raise his hand.

The dragon knight's wound in his chest had vanished, but Rider still had to lean on to his greatsword just to get to his feet. The Servant appeared so drained and so exhausted, though Saber was astonished that Rider could even survive such a severe hemorrhage.

"M-My sword Balmung... e-enough power," muttered Rider. "H-He... He's looking for som-something. Get me... a clear shot."

Saber's mind was racing, her eyes darted from cargo to cargo. Finding something... But what could a dragon possibly be looking for? Her train of thought was interrupted by Fafnir's ear-splitting screech. The dragon made an abrupt U-turn in the air and circled around heading back towards the harbour at a breakneck speed. Fafnir folded his wings as he approached so that the dragon could descend to an altitude where the harbour was within maximum striking range of his vicious breath. As the dragon glided overhead, the monster brought along winds that packed the strength of a hurricane.

Fafnir opened his great maw and a tongue of bright emerald flames burst forth, devouring the harbour. The merciless dragon fire charred the concrete ground and blew open all the remaining cargoes unfortunate to lay within its line of fire. When the dragon had completed his pass, the harbour was nothing but an ocean of ghastly green enchanted flames as far as Saber could see.

Except for the golden sparkle that caught her eye - a gleaming golden chalice surrounded by green flames. The Holy Grail.

"The Grail!" exclaimed Saber in excitement. "Of course! That thing is going for the Grail - "

"Rider," commanded Caster. "That's your shot. We know where the dragon is headed. Aim your Noble Phantasm at - "

There was a brilliant flash of red. Lancer spun her spear and pointed the barbed blade of Gáe Bolg at Caster's throat threatening to slice it open.

"And destroy the Holy Grail? I don't think so," growled Lancer, her scarlet eyes livid with rage. "I see through your schemes, Caster. I've come too far to let my wish be - "

"Me?" chuckled Caster, defiant even in the face of death. "Seriously, Lancer? You're pointing your weapon at me? Why don't you check if you're on the same page as your ally."

Lancer turned her head and saw that Rider had his sword Balmung raised high with both hands. The dragon knight was determined to right the wrong he had created tonight. The dragon knight's eyes were locked onto Fafnir's movements through the sky. The moment the wicked dragon circled around for his third pass, Rider began his chant:

" _O' sword, let thee be filled... With thine sword, the wicked dragon shall fall!_ "

Saber felt the mana surge within Rider as he activated his Noble Phantasm. The ground itself rumbled as the cruciform greatsword Balmung teemed with aqua-coloured energy that reached for the heavens.

Then Saber noticed something that could change the tide of this battle - a pair of headlights, a silver sportscar, the i8 was racing towards the harbour. Her ally, Allison was making a beeline for the Holy Grail.

Saber immediately recognized that the status quo had changed.

"BAL... MUNGRGGHHHHH...!"

Rider groaned and dropped to his knees, his greatsword Balmung slipped between his fingers and fell to the ground beside him with a resounding clatter.

As if knight and dragon were bound by some invisible bond, Fafnir let out an unearthly shriek and then began to writhe and gallop uncontrollably mid-air. The wicked dragon gave a final screech and then vanished in a flourish of silver starlight.

Saber seized her opportunity. With incredible speed, she reached for the handle of her katana and threw a diagonal cut at Lancer. _Iaijutsu_ , the art of simultaneously drawing the katana from its scabbard while executing a slash would have been sufficient to cut down any other unsuspecting Servant. But with Scáthach's superior A-ranked Agility stat, Lancer was able to deflect Saber's attack with a combination of her heightened intuition and inhumane reflexes, though she sustained an open wound above her right eye from the wind of the draw-cut.

Lancer shoved Saber away, but Saber persistently rebounded right back, choosing to stick close to Lancer. With the element of surprise, it didn't take much for Saber to force Lancer into a blade lock. Saber only needed to keep Lancer busy for long enough so that Allison had time to get to the Holy Grail.

"Saber... Why? Why do you stand in my way? What can you possibly want out of the Grail?" shouted Lancer, a trickle of blood streaming down her cheek.

"Mehhh, no particular reason really. Just a shining addition to Miyamoto Musashi's long list of victories," taunted Saber in her mock-baby voice.

"For that... For that frivolous reason you would deny me the Grail?" growled Lancer, barely able to contain her rage. "How dare yo - "

"Lancer! Rider!" echoed Lancer's Master's magecraft enhanced voice. "What are you doing? They are getting away with the Grail!"

The i8 tore through the emerald flames and made a perfect drifting U-turn. When the sports car sped away from the battlefield, the golden chalice was nowhere to be seen. Tonight, the i8's specs as supercar paid its worth in full. The BMW i8 accelerated to 100 km/h in a span of 4.4 seconds and vanished from the harbour as quickly as it showed up.

"Get _out_ of my way Saber," warned Lancer, shoving Saber away. "I won't ask twice."

"That iron chariot is one of the fastest contraptions of the modern world, Shishou. Whachu gonna do? Chase after it on foot?" mocked Saber.

But Saber's question was answered by the roaring of an engine.

Rider was mounted and ready on his own iron steed. A black, matte-finished Yamaha VMAX.

"You can stand down, Lancer. You've done the best that you could. From here on, the battle is mine." said Rider.

* * *

"Trace on!"

From the cover of the warehouse, Shirou conjured his longbow loaded with a modified projection of Beowulf's sword. He pulled the bowstrings back and called the name of the Phantasm immediately as he fired.

"Hrunting!"

The pitch-black projection became a red blur as it streaked through the emerald flames in a perfect trajectory towards Rider and his bike. As long as he kept his aim on the target, Hrunting would relentlessly pursue Shirou's like a hound.

Rider spun Balmung effortlessly to intercept Hrunting. The Broken Phantasm, Hrunting exploded on contact with the dragon knight's greatsword, barely phasing or even slowing down the Heroic Spirit of the Mount.

"Caster!" commanded Crystal.

On his Master's summons, Caster materialized beside Shirou in a flourish of white starlight. The Heroic Spirit of Sorcery waved his fan and Shirou felt an incredible surge of mana coursing through his black bow.

"The winds will be with you on your next shot, boy," smiled Caster. "A quick word of advice: attack the enemy where they aren't."

Shirou drew the bowstrings back while simultaneously summoning Hrunting once again. Rider-class Servants usually possessed some form of magical resistance, which meant that attacking Rider head-on wasn't necessarily the best option. _Attack_ _the enemy where they aren't_.

"Hrunting!"

The arrow-sword of Beowulf traced a scarlet streak across the sky once again, but this time in a perfect trajectory _ahead_ of Rider. The Broken Phantasm detonated upon impact and when enhanced by Caster's mana, the projectile carved out a massive crater in the ground. The resulting infrastructural damage was so disruptive that Rider was forced to take the longer route around to pursue his target.

He had done what he could, he bought Allison the maximum amount of time possible.

"Well then Emiya Shirou," said Crystal. "Here's where we part ways. If you want to take my offer more seriously, come find me at the National University tomorrow at noon."

"Faculty of Archaeology," added Caster. "Oh and don't forget to bring along the Grail from tonight. There's something else you need to know."

Shirou's bow dissipated in his hands and the Magus had a look of confusion on his face.

"Why can't you just tell me - "

"Well it's... not something I can tell you about," said Crystal, pulling her flame-coloured hair behind her ears when she spoke. "It's something I need to _show_ you."

Caster shot Shirou a nasty wink and then dissipated in a flourish of white starlight as he took on his Spirit Form.

As soon as Crystal and Caster left, Saber burst into the warehouse.

"Shirou! Rider is going after Alli-chan," exclaimed Saber. "You need to warn her. That ear-thingy does it still work?"

Saber was right. With Shirou's Clairvoyance as a Master, he had seen Rider's parameters and right now, knowledge of his Riding stat was most relevant to their current situation. Furthermore, with his Tracing ability he managed to analyze the make of Rider's bike. All this information could be crucial to Allison.

Shirou propped the comms back into his ears and called out to Allison.

"Allison, come in!"

* * *

The BMW i8 flew down the streets of Academy Island and was headed straight for the metropolitan highway. The densely-populated island-city was usually flooded with traffic, but at 2am in the morning, Allison barely faced any obstructions as she sped down the road, though she still felt the need to beat at least three red lights.

Dragon fire had damaged the i8's engine and internal combustion systems. As such Allison was forced to power the supercar entirely on electricity, which capped its top speed at 250 km/h and limited its mileage to just under 37 kilometers.

Dull, blood-red miasma gathered in the passenger's seat beside Allison and Assassin came out of Presence Concealment seated beside his Master.

"How-How long have you been there?" asked Allison, trying to keep her crimson eyes on the road. "Did you - "

Allison was interrupted by the deafening rumble of an engine revving up behind her. It took only one look at her rear mirror to figure that the dreaded black blur on wheels gaining in on her was an enemy Servant. Allison slammed her fists on the steering wheel and cursed.

"Independent Action huh... You _deliberately_ disobeyed me," roared Allison. "I told you to - "

"I-Master... I'm sorry I couldn't - "

"What the hell is wrong with you tonight?" Allison lashed out in fury. "Nevermind, you know what? I don't want to hear about it anymore. Just get that guy off my tail."

Assassin pulled out Allison's heavily modified scarlet AR-15 from under his seat and chambered in the first 5.56mm NATO round by pulling its charging handle.

"Spike's Tactical upper and lower, 16.5 inch lightweight barrel, BCM MLOK free-float 13 inch handrail, Arisaka Defense 600 light module, Magpul angled foregrip, pistol grip and flip-up sights, Trijicon ACOG optics, Radian Raptor ambidextrous charging handle, B5 sopmod stock," recited Assassin as he examined the AR-15 from barrel to stock. "Good taste. You've got this thing Gucci'd out I see."

Assassin wound down the window, peered through the AR-15's ergonomic optics and opened fire upon Rider. The deadly rounds fired by Assassin were not simply ordinary 5.56mm NATO rounds, they were enhanced by his legend as an infamous hit-man during his lifetime, causing the bullet projectiles to take on incendiary and armour penetrating properties.

Rider drew Balmung and began to hack and slash at the shower of bullets from Assassin. A stray bullet struck him on his right shoulder, tearing through his dragon-scale cuirass like butter and temporarily impaired his ability to defend himself reliably with Balmung. Rider stowed away his greatsword by the side of the Yamaha VMAX and put both hands on the bike's handle.

Rider put all his attention into closing the distance and completely dodging Assassin's bullets by weaving in and out of the traffic. The Heroic Spirit of the Mount displayed an incredible level of skill handling the bike, he was even going out of his way to dodge Assassin's cover fire using excessively stylish maneuvers. With his superior skill at Riding, Rider's advance was virtually unstoppable, it was only a matter of time before the Grail was his.

"Allison, come in!" sounded Shirou's voice over the comms.

"Copy Shirou over," replied Allison.

"Listen, Rider's parameter for Riding is A++ rank. He's going to get the maximum value out of any mount. In this case, its a 2009 Yamaha VMAX. It's _impossible_ to outrun this guy, over."

Allison glared at Assassin. If only he had disabled every vehicle like she commanded, they wouldn't be faced with this problem now. But she couldn't change the past, she needed to move on, she needed to improvise something unexpected if she was going to win this Grail War. _Without sacrifice, there cannot be victory_.

"Can you keep him busy for another minute?" Allison asked Assassin. "I've got an idea when we hit the Sheares Bridge."

Assassin nodded. He ejected the Magpul windowed magazine and replaced it with a fresh thirty-round magazine.

The Sheares Bridge, named after Academy Island's second president, was not in fact a bridge, but a 1.8 kilometer highway built over the island-city's southern barrage. The basin was contained by a dam that channeled the confluence of five rivers into a single catchment area that functioned as a water storage and flood control facility for the Republic.

"Shirou, meet me back at the Pinnacle," said Allison. "Switch on the tracker immediately when you get back. Over."

"Copy, Allison. Over and out."

Allison held up the Grail in her left hand and stuck a minuscule magnetic strip at the bottom of the chalice.

"Is that - "

"GPS tracking dot. Accurate globally with an uncertainty down to 10 centimeters, but more importantly, _waterproof_ for depths up to 150 meters," said Allison, cutting Assassin off. "We're letting them have it."

The wind whipped Allison's platinum hair into a frenzy the moment she wound down her own window. Without any semblance of hesitation, the White Reaper flung the golden chalice as far as she could over the Sheares Bridge and into the basin bellow.

Rider lost control over the Yamaha VMAX upon seeing the Grail being flung into water. Going from 300 km/h to zero in the span of one second threw even Rider off his bike irregardless of how insanely high his paramters at Riding were. The Servant broke his fall by breaking into a roll, he then leapt off the side of the Sheares Bridge after the falling chalice. But the Yamaha VMAX wasn't so lucky. Without its rider, the incredible friction against the highway tarmac triggered an unsolicited ignition on its fuel, causing the motorcycle to burst into a gigantic ball of fire.

* * *

Rin raced down the extensively decorated hallways of the Pleiades Mansion.

Her modifications to Reina's kill switch worked exactly as she intended. Upon crossing the new mana threshold, the gemstones passed a powerful, but non-lethal current of electricity through the wires to packing enough energy to knock the girl unconscious.

 _Ryuuzaki, I've kept my end of the deal. I saved your sister's life. I owe you nothing now._

Tonight was the perfect chance to make her escape, an opportunity rarer than perhaps even a perfect planetary alignment. All three Servants, Archer, Lancer and Rider had left the mansion along with Leonardo and Ryuuzaki. Reina was currently unconscious, all that stood between Rin and freedom was a handful of Lord Auteur's lackeys and the massive double doors that led to the outside world.

Dealing with third-rate Magi defending the mansion was simpler than snapping her fingers.

Lord Auteur's incredible excess of wealth was working against him. In a hallway littered with jewels and other precious minerals, Rin was like a kid in a candy store. Here, her strength as a Magus was dialed up to eleven. Directing her mana into the sparkling chandelier that illuminated the final hallway, the jeweled fixture leapt to life, becoming a formidable magical turret that fired beam upon beam of elemental energy on the guards with pinpoint accuracy, eliminating them with extreme prejudice.

Rin rammed open the double doors and tripped clumsily over her heels as she made her way out into the outside world. She closed her aqua eyes and took a deep breath, drinking in the cool, dewy fresh air outside the mansion for the first time in weeks -

An over-sized, viscous, foul-smelling raindrop landed on her shoulder, soaking through Reina's off-shoulder gothic dress in an instant. Rin slowly craned her head upwards and stared into the monster's eyes with dread.

Except there wasn't just one pair of hungry yellow eyes, but three. The enormous, black beast towering over Rin had three salivating heads conjoined together at the body.

"Gandr!"

Rin fired a string of black orbs in quick succession from her finger. The magecraft bullets hit their mark as intended, but the thick, black pelt of Cerberus was barely even ruffled by her attacks, rather it only served to further enrage the beast.

Rin rolled and dodged the beast's poorly coordinated, wild and mindless snapping. All three heads lunged forward for a share of Rin's delicious skin, but they were only an impediment to the other's endeavour. Rin saw that she had only one option - she had to make it back to the Pleiades Mansion where the entrance would be too narrow for the three-headed beast to pursue.

Enhancing her feet with mana, Rin dashed in a straight line back to the mansion with Cerberus hot in pursuit. But with her body covered in the revolting, viscous fluid from Cerberus' snout, her wet, sodden dress weighed her down and her movements felt clumsy and slippery and it didn't take much for her to trip on her heels again, falling flat on the marbled floor and she tasted blood in her mouth.

Cerberus reared over its fallen victim, ready to tear her limb from limb. But Rin felt a wave of pulsating aura course throughout the air and the three-headed hell hound let out a multiple defeated whimpers and bounded into the hedges of the courtyard, terrified by the lone being that stood at the doorway to the mansion.

An unnaturally tall, muscular man with his face covered by a black shroud lined with gold trim towered over Rin.

 _A Servant_ , thought Rin. The very same Servant that shot down her helicopter back at the Clock Tower with a massive ballista. The words that came out of Rin's mouth next felt ironically familiar, though she found herself in a very different position.

"A-Archer...?!"

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Rin sat on a velvet-cushioned chair by the side of a long, polished wooden table. Two other people lined the side of the table with their Servants standing guard behind them.

Rin recognized the boy in a black hoodie and kabuki mask, Ryuuzaki. His Servant, Rider who stood behind Ryuuzaki had his bleached hair and silver armour charred by fire and soot, Rin noticed that the dragon knight seemed to have lost the tan colouring of his skin overnight.

Rin did not recognize the man garbed entirely in gold from head to toe, but his composure and snobbish attitude reminded her heavily of Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes from the Fifth Holy Grail War. The man had not even spoken a single word, but Rin already hated him to the core. Rin did however recognize the golden man's Servant. The tall, shapely woman with long, dark hair and scarlet eyes had tried to rip both her's and Shirou's heart out with her Noble Phantasm, Gáe Bolg.

At the head of the table sat Lord Auteur Pleiades, one of twelve Lords at the Mage's Association, the current head of Mineralogy and the Master of Archer in the Sixth Holy Grail War. Lord Auteur undoubtedly commanded massive material wealth, but the nobleman did not see the need to flaunt it in his dressing like the golden Magus on his right. He simply wore a pristine white two-button blazer over a pitch-black collared shirt and a matching pair of white dress pants. Elegance, grace and composure radiated from this man - the very same qualities that Tokiomi had hoped to pass down to his daughter, Rin.

"Gentlemen," began Lord Auteur. "Ladies."

He shot a glance at Rin, but ignored Lancer.

"Three Command Seals we have expended tonight," continued Lord Auteur in his powerful, charismatic voice. "And what do we have to show for? A burning harbour and a 130 meter dragon on the loose. I was expecting more from your command, Leo."

"The Grail, my lord," replied Leonardo, waving his hands dismissively. "We've got it."

At his signal, Rider stepped forward and placed an ornate golden chalice in front of Lord Auteur.

Lord Auteur eyed the chalice suspiciously, then reached into the depths of his blazer and withdrew a weapon that made Rin's eyes widen in shock. A mirror-finished, straight-bladed ceremonial dagger with ancient runes inscribed on its spine and a burning blue sapphire set into its pommel. Though she couldn't make out the word inscribed in the blue gemstone, Rin already knew what was written: AZOTH.

"läßt!" recited Lord Auteur, activating the energy within the blade as he ran its edge against the mouth of the chalice. Blue flames licked the chalice where it was struck and Lord Auteur's face betrayed a hint of anger.

"A fake..." breathed Lord Auteur.

"My lord, I assure you Project Trinity - "

"Has not been compromised in any way?" laughed Lord Auteur. "A bold claim, Leo. Considering that we do not have the Grail. Very well, I will give you twenty-four hours to redeem yourself, Leonardo Aurum."

"As you wish, my lord," said Leonardo, who dipped his head.

Rin's mind became a whir trying to process everything she just heard. Project Trinity. Was that some kind of code word to conceal their plan? That was extremely likely considering that Lord Auteur was completely comfortable with letting her in on everything.

"Tohsaka Rin," remarked Lord Auteur, and all eyes in the Great Hall turned to face her. "My fellow disciple of the Old Man of the Jewel, Schweinorg - "

"You're no disciple," spat Rin. "You're a thief. That dagger doesn't belong to yo - "

"You're right, it was given to me by Tokiomi-sama," Lord Auteur finished her sentence with a smirk on his face. "Yes, Rin. I too, was a disciple of your father. As such, I'm willing to let you go tonight if you would agree to - "

"To hell with you," cursed Rin. "Who's going to agre - "

Lord Auteur reached into the pocket of his pristine white blazer and pulled out a neatly folded piece of parchment. With simple manipulation of the air current, the Jewel Magus sent the parchment floating towards Rin who inspected the document with skepticism.

"You see Rin," said Lord Auteur once again with his charismatic voice. "While you were being chased around by Cerberus, we intercepted a pigeon - no, a familiar to be exact. Curious... how _any_ familiar would know how to get to this mansion whose location has been heavily cloaked by layers of bounded fields."

Rin cautiously unfolded the parchment and gasped aloud as she saw what was written on it:

 **National University. Tomorrow at noon.**

Tears welled up in her aqua eyes as she recognized the handwriting instantaneously as Shirou's untidy scrawl, evident that it was written in a hurry. _Shirou you idiot_ , thought Rin to herself.

"Tohsaka Rin, now that we know where Emiya Shirou will be tomorrow," remarked Lord Auteur. "You will do _exactly_ as I tell you. Try anything funny and your beloved boyfriend's death will be on you. Am I clear?"

"Yes," spat Rin in her final attempt at defiance.

A terrible grin stretched across Lord Auteur's face as he waved his hand to dismiss the meeting, revealing the two Command Seals at the back of his palm that resembled an angry red swirl.

* * *

Twenty-four hours.

Leonardo had an entire day's worth of time, but the alchemist could already feel the noose of death constrict itself around his neck. Lord Auteur was absolutely surgical in his planning and saw failure as a pestilence. He did not forgive and he did not forget. And beneath all his smooth, charismatic talk, Leonardo knew from experience that the true Auteur Pleiades was a ruthless and cunning man.

Returning without the Holy Grail was effectively a death sentence for Leonardo. Men more powerful than him had wasted their lifetimes tracking down the holy chalice but to no avail, now he had to accomplish what no man has done and in twenty-four hours or face the Reaper. _The Reaper_ , thought Leonardo to himself. A stroke of brilliance struck him upon that thought.

"Bring up all pictures from the traffic speed cameras between 0200 hrs to 0215 hrs," Leonardo commanded his digital hacking crew.

"At once, Sir."

Leonardo isolated the photos of the silver BMW i8 taken from three speed cameras and enlarged them. He zoomed in on the driver's seat and at such a focus, the image's resolution became piss poor at best but he could still make out the driver - the legendary White Reaper herself.

He caressed the screen gently with his fingers across her long, platinum hair and smiled to himself.

"Old Man Acht..." whispered Leonardo. "What are you up to?"

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_

Hey there readers, as always thanks for reading my work :)

Seeing as I uploaded the last chapter pretty late, I decided to finish this one slightly earlier than planned.

As of writing this, I am extremely exhausted do pardon me if i made any glaring grammatical errors. Also I will be updating the A/N section on this chapter in the future should there be any burning issues from you guys.

Oh yes, I will be answering some of the reviews from last chapter in the A/N here too at a later time, so yeah keep your eyes peeled.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!

 ***Update***

First thing I want to talk about - easter eggs. Yeah there were Fate/Zero easter eggs packed in this. The most obvious being the scene with Illya and Kiritsugu at the Einzbern Castle. Then there's the 2009 Yamaha VMAX. The bike that Arturia Saber used in F/Z was the 1985 V-Max, an older version of the bike that Rider Siegfried was abusing. Saber chasing Rider in F/Z was one of the best animated chase scenes ever in anime so I couldn't resist having a chase scene in my own fic. The Azoth blade. This is completely AU and non-canonical, but this is a twin to the Azoth blade that Rin has, I even had this one stylistically opposed with a sapphire instead of a ruby. Siegfried raising his sword, ready to destroy the Holy Grail (subverted). In my head, this is a callout to how Arturia destroyed the Grail in F/Z.

Non-Nasu easter eggs. Cerberus' appearance is an reference to how Fluffy salivated on Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Allison's Gucci'd out AR-15 that Kiritsugu was immediately able to break down. Yes, those are the specs that I wish I could have on my own AR-15, but we don't do guns where I come from.

This is the first time in the fic we see the big bad, Lord Auteur Pleiades and his name was very aptly chosen. Besides following the naming convention Auteur, Master of Archer, "Auteur" literally means "The Author". Who is the author? Well me of course lulz. And then we have "Pleiades", a star-cluster of seven stars (see what I did there?), put it together and we get "The Author of the Stars". Poetic that the characters are literally fighting against the Author who controls everything in this fic.

Addressing reviews. I took HappyReviewer's suggestion and switched Heracles to Alcides, thanks for pointing that out. Though I want to say that there isn't a clear antagonist is evil thing in this fic, in fact I dislike having clear lines for the good guys and bad guys, good versus evil duality. Everyone in this fic has their own selfish agenda, so in that sense _everyone_ that's not Shirou or Rin is an antagonist to each other.

As for how Shirou's side doesn't look like he has a chance, I take that as a huge compliment. I feel that the antagonists should at the _very least_ be as strong as the protagonists for any conflict to feel like there are stakes. No one is going to enjoy a beatdown of an average tennis player against the world champion, so I stacked the odds sky-high for Shirou and the other protagonists.


	5. Chapter 5

**\- Chapter 5 -**

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_

I want to begin by saying that the chapter 4's A/N section has been updated where I break down the easter eggs and answer some review queries so check it out if you haven't :)

* * *

Reina ran her fingers through her brother's dark, purplish hair gently - hair that looked and felt so much like her own. She then caressed his face gently, feeling the skin that was smooth, almost infantile on the right, but also the skin on the left that was horribly mangled and maimed by scar tissue.

Reina loved everything about him.

She loved his vulnerability, she loved his sensitivity, his insensitivity, she loved having his attention, she loved the way he touched her, above all, she loved how everyone in her life had told her it was forbidden love. But yes, anything forbidden always felt the sweetest, the most rewarding, the most cathartic, nothing else mattered in the world as long as it felt good. It felt good to love him, it felt good to be loved by him, it felt good when he kissed every inch of her body and it felt good every time he was inside her.

Nothing else in her life mattered.

Ryuuzaki started to stir in the four-poster bed and Reina immediately began to adjust her hair.

"Reina... W-Whats th- time," slurred Ryuuzaki.

His hands blindly reaching for bedside he expected his clock to be, only to find that it was empty.

Reina had personally seen to it that the racketing mechanical nuisance would never interrupt her precious brother's sleep.

"Onii-chan, there's still time," lied Reina. "You should get some sleep. Go back to - "

However it took Ryuuzaki only one look at the golden sunbeams shining into Reina's room for him to tell that it was almost noon.

Ryuuzaki threw the bed sheets aside and pulled on his clothes.

"Reina, I told you - never mind," sighed Ryuuzaki. "Where's my mask?"

"You don't need it," replied Reina spitefully. "You can't hide behind it forever."

She despised how Ryuuzaki-nii ever needed to conceal his scars. Why couldn't everyone else see him for who he was? Why did they flinch when they laid eyes on his face? Why should he ever need to hide?

Reina always seemed to arrive back at the same answer. _They don't deserve him. Nobody else does. But me. If they can't see him for who he was at his worst, they don't deserve him at his best._

And until very recently she was powerless to change that, but now Reina held power beyond compare, she knew what the perfect judgment was for Rin... And the rest of the world.

"You've taken it off in front of _that girl_ before. I know abou- "

"That girl _saved_ your life," corrected Ryuuzaki.

 _No she didn't_ , thought Reina. The kill switch was indirectly Reina's own idea, but there was no need for Ryuuzaki-nii to know that. For days she fanned the flames of Lord Auteur's increasing fear of the inevitable day that his magically gifted disciples turned against him and she got him paranoid enough to act on it. She then exploited that fear so that her brother would spend every waking moment with her, worrying for her health, caring for her, showering her with gifts, feeding her at every meal.

But that all changed when _she_ showed up. That girl. That girl that who now wore Reina's clothes and was spending time with her brother. Tohsaka Rin.

Just the thought of Rin was enough for Reina's heart to sting as though that girl had run a dagger through it.

"Screw. I don't have time for this, I'll get one on the way. I'm leaving, Reina," said Ryuuzaki.

Ryuuzaki headed for the red door, visibly annoyed by their conversation, a sight that made Reina's heart sink even lower.

"Onii-chan... When will you come back to Reina - "

The red door slammed shut behind him and Reina never got her answer.

Reina wrapped herself in a loose bathrobe and stood by the window, her amber eyes scanning the courtyard frantically. She always did this when Ryuuzaki-nii left the mansion. She wanted her eyes on him at every possible second. She would wave him goodbye from the window and he would wave right back with that smile on his face. She lived to see his smiles, there was no other purpose in her life.

But today, that girl was waiting for him at the Pleiades courtyard. Dressed a tight, long-sleeved red shirt pulled over her dangerously short pleated black skirt that matched her pair of thigh-highs, Reina was beyond certain that it was a calculated attempt at showing off her delicious skin between her skirt and socks. Even Reina was forced to admit that Rin was a beautiful girl, not only was she far prettier than herself, but curvier and taller than Reina could ever hope to be. But what made her blood boil was the way Ryuuzaki-nii was talking to her and was _smiling_ at her. And when he left the mansion wuthout to waving goodbye to Reina today, something delicate snapped inside her.

Hate. Anger. Jealousy. Rage. Fear. And then more rage. Reina clenched her fists so hard her nails drew blood from her palm and they started to shake uncontrollably. Tohsaka Rin needed to stop existing in the world.

 _Lovely isn't she, Master?_ spoke the deep, rumbling voice inside her head.

 _Yes she is... For a girl who's spending her last days on this world -_

 _What are you waiting for... How long more must you continue suffer? Just say the words... Say the words and she will be ashes... Say the words and spare yourself all that pain,_ growled the voice, this time growing hungrier.

 _Patience, my Servant... Patience. Your time will come._

 _Don't resist it, Master. Don't try to hold it back. I can feel your hate. I can smell your anger. I can taste the bitterness of the bile rising in your throat!_ boomed the voice in her head.

Reina stared into the window pane, but she didn't just see her reflection staring back at her through the glass. There was something else.

A massive, winged serpent loomed close behind her. The black beast had a set of majestic, helical horns. It had a long neck that ended in an ugly snout packed with rows of yellowing, razor-sharp teeth. It was covered in thick black scales, more tough and more resilient than any blade or armour made by man. And then a pair of terrible, glowing emerald eyes that burned like the fires that lit the furnaces of the dragon's belly.

 _Unchain me. Release me from my shackles. Set me upon the world, my Master -_

Reina smiled back at Fafnir and finished the Wicked Dragon's sentence.

 _And they shall BURN._

* * *

A flash of red caught Shirou's eye. A brief shimmer in a sea of people, but it was unmistakable. A triangular ruby strung at the end of a necklace. The necklace that belonged to the girl that saved his life ten years ago.

"Rin!" shouted Shirou.

He heaved and shoved his way through the crowd, gradually inching his way towards the end of the bus terminal. When Shirou finally broke through the crowd so that he could finally draw breath, he saw the boy that had Rin's necklace around his neck board a double-decked bus. A boy who had his face concealed behind a kabuki mask.

Shirou broke into a run, hot in pursuit after the boy.

 _Master!_ came Saber's voice through his head. _Something's not right. What if it's a trap? Alli-chan isn't here today to cover -_

 _We'll handle it when it happens. That's the first lead we have on Rin in months. I am not letting it get away!_ thought Shirou.

Shirou boarded the bus only to find that it was conspicuously empty. The bus wasn't even manned by a driver.

Without warning, the doors slammed shut and Rin's ruby necklace hurtled towards him with the speed of a bullet, but Shirou swiped it out of the air deftly and grasped it in his hand.

The boy in the black hoodie and kabuki mask was seated at the far end of the bus. He simply pointed enigmatically at the stairs to the second floor. Shirou cursed under his breath when he saw the Command Seals at the back of his hand, a glowing red dragon - this boy was a Master.

Before Shirou could yell 'Trace on!' to fend for himself, a shimmer of red and blue starlight filled the space in front of Shirou as Saber materialized with her wakizashi drawn. In the tight confines of the bus, arming herself with the shorter wakizashi made sense as it ensured that the length of her sword was not obstructed by her environment.

In the sweltering tropical summer of Academy Island, Saber chose to switch up her kimono for a sleeveless red shirt pulled over a pair of denim jeans and sneakers. To fend off the merciless sun, she wore a scarlet baseball cap over her head and let her pink ponytail fan out gracefully from behind the cap.

"This is bad, Master. There's a powerful bounded field around us that's keeping civilians out," whispered Saber.

Keeping the civilians out? This boy just gave up his biggest bargaining chip by not dragging innocent civilians into this mess. That made sense only if this boy wanted to ensure there were no witnesses or interference, these were the rules of the Magi from the Mage's Association abide by. But this made no sense now that he was trapped together with Saber. Even if it was his intention to start a fight here with his Servant, he would be up against Saber, who was arguably the strongest Servant class of the seven without any backup. This boy's illogical actions made absolutely no sense to Shirou.

"Well then. It's not nice to keep a lady waiting," began the boy, his voice distorted by the mask. "Emiya Shirou."

The engine roared to life and the bus jerked as it left the terminal.

"Where the hell are you taking us?" demanded Shirou.

"The same place _you_ are going," replied Ryuuzaki. "National University tomorrow at noon. Sound familiar?"

Shirou's brains became tangled in an ugly mess. How did this boy overhear his conversation with Crystal? The exact words no less.

The boy raised his right hand and there was a shimmer of silver starlight as Rider materialized in front of Saber. The dragon knight had lost the tanned colouring of his skin - his Noble Phantasm, the Armour of Fafnir that granted the knight a powerful protection against all kinds of attacks. Shirou deduced that it must have been the cost of calling forth the dragon, Fafnir the night before.

"Like I said, it's not nice to keep the lady waiting Shirou," repeated Ryuuzaki. "She's... Got quite the temper."

 _Lady... Got quite the temper._ Only one lady came to mind, yet there was only one way to confirm it.

"Go, Master," said Saber, keeping her blade pointed at the masked boy. "I'll see to it that our Onmyouji-kun over here stays exactly where he is."

Shirou nodded and ran up the stairs to the second deck.

\- 0 - 0 - 0 -

Sitting with her arms folded and her legs crossed, the girl in red and black had her aqua eyes fixed upon the metropolitan scenery of Academy Island outside, completely oblivious to Shirou's arrival.

Yet there was no mistaking the girl. He knew from experience there was only one route to redemption for Emiya Shirou. He had to confess his sins and beg for forgiveness.

"Rin..." began Shirou. "I'm sorr - "

Rin slapped him across his face before he had the chance to finish his sentence.

"Idiot," said Rin. Beads of shimmering light gathered around her eyes.

"Yes, I'm an idiot," sighed Shirou. "I shouldn't have - "

Another slap found its way across his face. Both sides of Shirou's cheeks now burned with shame.

Shirou held out the ruby necklace and offered it to Rin. The necklace that saved his life all those years ago.

"I don't expect you to forgive me," said Shirou. "I'm just so glad that you're - "

Rin raised her shivering hand a third time and Shirou braced himself for another round of abuse but the blow never came.

Instead, Shirou felt a pair of hands wrap themselves around his body so tightly he began to choke as he drew breath. And then the hugging turned into the barrage of enraged pounding of Rin's fists on his chest.

"Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot!" screamed Rin.

When she finally let out her months of pent up anger, she slackened her grip and smiled at Shirou.

"I'm... I'm just so happy- w-what am I saying? D-Don't think I've forgiven you yet, Shirou," stuttered Rin. "One letter isn't going to fix everything - "

"Wait a minute, Rin..." interrupted Shirou with his eyes widening in disbelief. "What letter?"

Rin looked equally shocked at Shirou's response. Instinctively, she raised her hand to slap Shirou again but this time he caught her by her hand.

"The letter, Shirou. The letter you wrote to me," repeated Rin. " 'National University tomorrow at noon.', what kind of sick prank - "

"I... I didn't write any letter," replied Shirou, his eyes darted around trying to make sense of all this.

There was it again. National University at noon. How did so many people know about his private conversation with Crystal? Even Rin knew about it, which only confirmed his theory... _It wasn't private._ Whatever it was, _somebody_ wanted to make sure that they were at the University at noon today and so far their plan was working.

The bus jerked again, but this time came to a halt and Shirou bolted for the stairs.

"So that's it huh," Rin shouted at Shirou. "That's how we're going to do things, aren't we? When the going gets tough you leave - "

"It's our stop Rin," sighed Shirou. "We're getting off here."

* * *

The National University a bustling, technological marvel. A city within a city, the zenith of all things academic in Asia.

The disparity in infrastructure between the pinnacle of research for science and the headquarters of research for magecraft couldn't have been wider. Every building had a futuristic, hexagonal tessellation to their architecture that made a technophobe like Rin frown her eyes in disgust. A far cry from the wooden, handcrafted Victorian structures that were prevalent at the Clock Tower.

Everything on campus was powered by renewable solar energy. The University capitalized on the eternal tropical summer that Academy Island experienced to harness a near endless supply of solar power. As such atop every one of its sparkling, silver dome-shaped buildings was an incredible array of solar panels.

Despite Rin vouching for the masked boy, Shirou saw fit to leave Saber with him on the bus. At best it meant learning something new about this Holy Grail War, at this point, any information would be crucial. At worst it meant the consumption of his second Command Seal to call Saber in if Crystal decided to betray him.

"Puts the 'Academy' in Academy Island doesn't it?" came a voice behind Shirou.

Shirou and Rin wheeled around to face a girl with short, flame-coloured hair. She had a lithe, athletic body and was dressed in white tank top pulled over her ripped denim shorts and wore a pair of brown knee-high boots.

"Ya-hallow," teased Crystal. She narrowed her eyes in dismay at the sight of Rin. "I was hoping that you'd come _alone_ , Shirou-kun. I didn't expect you to come along, Miss... Whichamacallit - "

"Tohsaka," replied Rin, not even bothering to conceal her anger that Crystal had already begun calling Shirou by his first name.

"Well then, this way Miss Tohsaka," said Crystal, swiftly changing the topic. "The Faculty of Ar - "

"Yes yes, the Faculty of Archaeology," interrupted Rin as she stormed past both Shirou and Crystal. "I know my way around here, thank you very much. We're in a Holy Grail War, there's no way we're going to visit the Faculty of Economics are we?"

Crystal shrugged her shoulders at Shirou and followed closely behind Rin.

"Before we begin," Crystal said to Shirou. "Shirou, did you bring the Grail?"

"Yeah well about that..." said Shirou. "Allison threw it into the Southern Bay."

Rin skidded to a halt upon hearing Shirou's words.

"Allison. _Another_ girl? Are you serious, Shirou?!" Rin lashed out.

Rin buried her face in her palm and shook her head. She let out a long, laboured sigh before continuing, her voice muffled between her fingers.

"The Grail... It's a fake. I saw Auteur Pleiades test it with the Azoth blade last night. My father's blade."

"Wait that's impossible," protested Shirou. "I felt its presence at the harbour. Its mana signature was on the level of a Noble Phantasm. It can't possibly be a fake - "

"I'm _telling_ you Emiya-kun _,_ I SAW it burn. It's a fake. Are you doubting me - "

"I am not doubting you - "

"Yes you are. You're doubting me right now. AGAIN. Just like you did in - "

Crystal coughed an awkward, uncomfortable cough that drew the ire of both Shirou and Rin.

"Are you two lovebirds done?" scoffed Crystal.

"We are NOT lovebirds," yelled the couple together.

"Whatever. _Both_ of you are right. Miss Tohsaka is right, the Grail is a fake. But what you felt at the harbour _was_ a powerful Noble Phantasm too, Shirou."

"What?" cried both Shirou and Rin in unison.

"It's like I told you, this isn't something I can tell you. It's something I need to _show_ you." replied Crystal.

Shirou and Rin had been so engrossed in their argument, neither of them noticed the massive wooden double doors that towered to the ceiling in front of them.

Crystal wore a mischievous grin on her face. Caster's Master tapped her card-key on the security scanner and the locks restraining the double doors parted.

* * *

Allison emptied her glass of whiskey then drew a deep breath from her cigarette.

"Dragon Smoke," came a pompous, arrogant voice from behind her. "Curiously rare stuff. Only one crate of those things exist in the world. Maybe because they taste so bad."

Allison didn't bother to turn around. She could make out his identity simply from the man's mana signature - an EX-ranked mana stat that only one Servant possessed in this Grail War.

"What do you want Caster?"

Allison's fingers reached for the walnut handle of the Thompson Contender holstered at her thigh.

"You can keep that silly toy away dolly, I'm just here for a round of drinks and a little chat," said Caster, taking the seat by the bar counter beside Allison. "Didn't think the Collector would be into consumables like cigarettes."

"Piss off," spat Allison.

"Why so hostile?" chuckled Caster.

A burly unshaven bartender, who looked like he could snap Caster's neck with just his heavily tattooed fingers stepped forward.

"Ye gonna order summin' or wha?" boomed the bartender. "Alice, dis' here man givin' ye any trubble?"

The Heroic Spirit of Sorcery started to fumble over a bunch of crumpled purple dollar bills from the sleeves of his white robe.

"Those are twos. Congratulations the green one's a five," scoffed Allison with glee, it was her turn to gloat. "You won't be able to afford anything with that here. Why, your _Master_ didn't give you enough pocket change?"

"Crystal _is_ a college student," shrugged Caster helplessly.

Allison smirked, then she waved at the bartender and he nodded.

"Keep your damned bills, don't embarrass yourself more than you already have," remarked Allison. "I know the bartender. He's getting you a martini."

The bartender placed a triangular cocktail glass half-filled with frosted, colourless liquid, garnished simply with a single olive impaled by a toothpick in front of Caster.

"So what is the White Reaper doing in a bar eight hundred meters away from the Pleiades mansion?" asked Caster.

Annoyed at such a rhetorical question that seemed to answer itself, Allison decided to answer with a question of her own.

"What is the greatest strategist in the Three Kingdoms doing in a bar two kilometers away from his Master?" asked Allison in return.

Caster smirked. The Heroic Spirit looked genuinely amused by Allison. He took a sip of martini and then spoke.

"You got spunk, I like that, dolly. I'll be honest with you," said Caster. "You see I'm having trust issues with my Master. Command Seal kind of trust issues. Alcohol solves problems like these doesn't it?"

 _A Command Seal?_ thought Allison. But what could Crystal possibly have forced Caster into doing? How strained was their relationship? It would be a massive advantage if she could tear their Master-Servant bond apart from the inside.

"Your turn to talk now."

"I'm here to take back what's mine," said Allison coolly. She waved to the bartender for another whiskey. "The Holy Gra - "

Caster let out a hearty laugh that annoyed Allison so much she considered putting one of her six remaining Origin Bullets through the Servant's thick skull that instant. If only he didn't have the knowledge that she wanted.

"Dolly, you do know that it's a fake don't you?" laughed Caster. "You see, my talents aren't just limited to strategy and creating winds."

 _A fake,_ thought Allison. The only way Caster would know for sure that it's a fake was if he was the one who put it there in the first place. With the Clairvoyance of a Master, she scanned through his parameters and saw that Caster's class skill, Item Construction was EX-ranked.

But there was more to just a maxed out parameter. The reason Caster was even anywhere near the fake Grail he constructed had to be because he could track the whereabouts of his creations. Which meant that for the whole of last night, Caster had the at least four Masters and seven Servants going around chasing a fake chalice, risking their lives for an outcome that didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. This man was a step ahead the whole time, a master of strategy indeed.

Caster tapped his glass against Allison's and took another long sip of martini.

"What's the purpose of this chat?" said Allison. "You looking for a Master with deeper pockets?"

Caster took a glance at the gleaming silver BMW i8 outside the bar.

"I'm looking for a Master with more logic. Someone without the emotional baggage of revenge. Someone who's not a child." said Caster. "Auteur Pleiades will soon be calling for a temporary alliance with all the Masters. The thought of a wild dragon flying around is simply too much for him - "

"The dragon is gone," snapped Allison. "Vanished."

"Dragons don't go away like that dolly," said Caster. "Only _Servants_ do. As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, Auteur will be calling for a ceasefire, and this alliance will be endorsed by the Church. The _real_ owners of that sweet ride out there. Yes, you aren't the only ones working with the Church."

Just as Caster predicted, a pigeon barged into the bar and dropped an envelope with the wax seal of the Holy Church onto Allison's lap.

"What I can't figure out is... Why would the White Reaper give up a perfectly good opportunity to remove _three_ of four Masters from this Grail War toda - "

"What the hell are you talking about?" growled Allison.

Caster emptied the last bit of martini and smiled at Allison.

"Come on now, dolly. We both know the name of the game," remarked Caster. "The most practical way for a Master of Assassin to win is by removing all other Masters from the Grail War. Your alliance gave you a reason to get close to people, but now it's just you and me. You can drop the act. Tell me... What are you after?"

Allison drew the Thompson Contender from its holster and buried its black barrel between Caster's eyes.

Caster closed his eyes and ran his finger along the length of the Contender's black barrel. When he opened his eyes again, the Servant simply smiled. An enigmatic smile that made even the cold, murderous blood of an assassin like Allison curdle. An uneasy thought lingered at the back of her mind, _what did he see?_

"Ah, I see what this is about..." smirked Caster. "Your wish ends in absolute malevolence... Not that it's any of my business, but I can help you get what you want."

Allison lowered the break-action pistol and gave Caster her full attention.

"I take that's a 'yes'?" chuckled Caster.

"It's not a yes. But I _am_ interested," frowned Allison, her crimson eyes glowed hungrily as she spoke now. "Keep talking."

* * *

"Saber, put down your sword. We're all on the same side. For now," said Rider.

"Hehh I'll lower my sword when you tell your Master to take off his mask," demanded Saber. "I don't trust anyone whose face I cannot see."

"You've taken your insults too far this time, Saber...!" growled Rider.

Ryuuzaki held up his hand and Rider backed down.

"It's fine, Rider," said Ryuuzaki in his muffled voice. "Reina was right. I can't hide behind a mask forever. Right now we need Saber's trust more than I need my dignity."

Ryuuzaki pulled the kabuki mask off his head to reveal the horrible scarring the boy suffered as a child on the left of his face and the empty socket of his eye that was stitched together to seal it shut.

"Glass. Not ordinary glass, but enchanted volcanic glass," said Ryuuzaki. "Obsidian. Burned the flesh right off my face when I was five. Are you willing to talk now, Saber?"

Saber lowered her sword slowly.

"Saber," began Rider. "As you know the dragon, Fafnir is on the loose - "

"That's _your_ fault, Rider. Don't drag the rest of us into this. I've got a war to win," said Saber dismissively.

"Nobody wins this war if the leylines to the Greater Grail are destroyed, Saber," warned Rider. "Fafnir's dragon fire. It's one of the most destructive forces - you saw what it did to the harbour last night. We can resume our battle _after_ we have dealt with the dragon."

* * *

The heavy double doors parted to reveal the massive hallway of the Faculty of Archaeology.

Home to over thousands of years' worth of mankind's history, a whole host of priceless historical artifacts were archived and displayed at the University's museum for the world to rediscover humanity's past. Artifacts, porcelain and limestone statues, ancient papyrus scrolls but one section caught Shirou's eye more than all the others combined - the armoury.

The University had on display an impressive collection of legendary weapons, some were broken shards that resembled the makings of a sword, but surprisingly most of the relics had been restored to their functionality as weapons, as Noble Phantasms. But the exhibit in particular that made Shirou's eyes pop were encased behind glass. A pair of falchions - one dark as night, the other white as snow. _Kanshou and Bakuya_ _._

"Artifacts from all around the world," began Crystal. "Sent to the National University to test for their authenticity. Radioactive dating, carbon dating, analysis of historical anecdotes all that good stuff. What is interesting to point out, is that in the last six months, twelve Greek relics were bought from the Faculty at an incredibly generous price - "

"By Auteur Pleiades," finished Rin, her eyes scanning the floor, deep in thought. "That makes no sense. Why twelve relics? Only _one_ Catalyst is ever needed to summon a Servant."

"Eleven relics to hide the one Catalyst he used to summon Archer?" asked Shirou. "But which one did he use?"

"Doesn't matter which was the one," said Crystal. "Shirou, do you remember what happened when Caster fired Archer's arrow back at him?"

"His Master... called him back with a Command Seal," muttered Shirou, trying to recall the events at the harbour. "If so powerful was his Servant, why would he call for a retreat?"

"Because he had no choice," answered Crystal with a grin on her face.

From the pocket of her ripped denim shorts she pulled out a tiny glass vial that contained a glowing green substance.

"Caster and I got this off the tip of one Archer's arrows," said Crystal. "A little tinkering around the lab revealed that it is the Blood of the Lernaean Hydra - "

"Heracles!" shouted Rin and Shirou together.

"Alcides to be exact," corrected Crystal. "Twelve Catalysts, one for each of the hero's Twelve Labours. Alcides died when he put on a tunic stained with the Hydra's blood and was later apotheosized by Zeus. Venom of the Hydra, so poisonous that it killed Alcides and forced Chiron to give up his immortality. That vial there is easily one of the most potent weapons this Grail War."

Shirou cursed. Heracles-no, Alcides had been summoned for the second time in a row. In the Fifth Holy Grail War, the hero had his sanity taken from him in exchange for a boost across his already powerful parameters as Berserker. But as Archer, arguably the hero's most fitting class as a Servant, the strength and synergy between all twelve of his Noble Phantasms would be dialed up to eleven.

"This is even more one-sided than I expected," said Rin. "He's got the most powerful Servant and if this continues, he's going to win the Grail War. That _thing,_ the Greater Grail... It's corrupted, we can't let him - "

"Calm down Miss Tohsaka," said Crystal. "Archer's identity wasn't the only thing we discovered. As one of twelve lords at the Mage's Association, I'm sure Auteur knew about the corruption of the Grail and has devised a plan to tackle it. Herein lies his answer."

Crystal led them to an exhibit protected behind layer upon layer of bounded fields. Judging by the powerful invisible air current that guarded the outer-most layer, Shirou could tell that the shields were set up by Caster. All this for a single, broken artifact. There was more to it than meets the eye.

The relic was what appeared to be the tip of a bident, but it had its two prongs so close together it appeared to be the blade of a spear when seen from afar. The relic was bound by a grey amulet marked by hieroglyphs, from the complete lack of mana emission, Shirou deduced that the amulet not only sealed away its properties as a Noble Phantasm, but also prevented Shirou's Tracing ability from analyzing it. Was _this_ what he felt the night at the harbour?

"The Lance of Longinus," said Crystal. "The Holy Lance, The Spear of Destiny. The blade of the lance that pierced the side of Christ as he hung from the cross. An artifact itself has performed miraculous feats throughout history. Every single wielder of the Lance has used it to win seemingly unwinnable wars. I've been working on restoring the Lance back to its full strength as a Noble Phantasm like all the weapons you see out there, we need your help here, Emiya Shirou. Since the legend and fame of the artifact determines its power as a Noble Phantasm - "

"With a Noble Phantasm of this caliber, Auteur Pleiades will be able to stabilize the Greater Grail," finished Rin.

The fluttering of wings interrupted Rin. A pair of pigeons flew towards Shirou and Crystal, dropping both Masters an envelope sealed with the wax seal of the Holy Church. As Crystal ripped open the envelope, Rin saw the three Command Seals at the back of her hand that bore an uncanny resemblance to Shirou's - a sword.

"You're a... Master?" asked Rin indignantly, bewildered that the Grail had chosen her as Master instead of a descendant of the Three Founding Families. How strong was this girl's conviction to take part in this war for that to happen? How unstable had the Greater Grail become?

"Yeah," nodded Crystal. "I'm the Master of Caster."

"Crystal, am I reading this right?" asked Shirou, waving the letter in his hand. "We're all going to - "

"Guess we're _all_ on the same side till we slay that dragon huh?" grinned Crystal, brandishing her letter that had the exact same writing as Shirou's.

The flame-haired girl extended her hand to Shirou and he shook it.

* * *

Bertrand Paulsen crushed the letter from the Holy Church and threw it into the fire. The Enforcer watched every last scrap of parchment curl and burn in the flickering flames with a renewed lease on his madness.

An alliance with the White Reaper - the woman who murdered his wife and then burned her body? Never. The Overseer might as well have pissed on her grave. For that, he was going to make Father Urban pay for his insolence with his life.

Then another thought surfaced. Now that the other six Servants and Masters assumed that they were all working together to take down Fafnir the Wicked Dragon, it was the perfect chance for him to launch an unsuspecting attack on the White Reaper and avenge his wife.

He potentially had to deal with both Saber _and_ Assassin, but Berserker was one of if not _the_ strongest Servant this Grail War.

Berserker's true identity was Guan Yu, one of the most famed warriors from the Three Kingdoms. Aside from Caster who was Berserker's commander and war strategist in life, the infamous Zhuge Liang must have deduced not just Berserker's identity, but the identities of all the other Servants. But this knowledge mattered little to Berserker. Here, the Mad Warrior received a double boost from Mad Enhancement _and_ a geographical boost across all his parameters due to the citizens of Academy Island who deified Guan Yu for his famed bravery in the War of the Three Kingdoms. With his immense power, Berserker was able to single-handedly take on Archer, Lancer and Rider during Bertrand's rebellion against the Mage's Association.

Bertrand adjusted his black top hat and took one last glance at the blueprints of the Pinnacle.

"Tonight..." breathed the Enforcer. "Tonight you will pay for your sins, Number Thirteen."

* * *

 _Author's Notes:_

Ok, this chapter took way longer to finish than expected. As you guys can tell, it's heavy on exposition and it reads off like a movie's script considering how much dialogue happens in this chapter. As such, this chapter was extremely challenging to get right by me without immediately getting bored of reading it through myself. I dislike exposition myself and would love to cut it out, but this set up was absolutely necessary moving forward as the pressure starts to pile on our heroes and threats are building at every corner.

Easter eggs. First on the list, Dragon Smoke. The pack of incredibly rare, priceless cigarettes that both Aozaki Touko and Kairi Sisigou smoke in canon, which now includes Allison in this fic. Next, the Lance of Longinus. This is for all you Evangelion fans out there, yes it is going to be a bident sort of. This is the _REAL_ Lance of Longinus and there will be minor spoilers moving forward for those of you who know about the history of the Lance, but yes it is a very powerful artifact. The amulet around the Lance is a reference to the wrappings that Lancer in F/Z used to conceal Gáe Dearg and Gáe Buidhe.

As usual, I will respond to the comments here in the A/N section unless it is very pressing, in which I will respond by writing it in the review section as I did for chapter 4.

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the next :)

 ***Update*** Answering the guest comment: About the arrow and Alcides' Pelt. My understanding is this - the Pelt _would_ stop the arrow, afterall it _is_ made by man even if it came from Alcides himself. But don't forget the arrow is laced with the blood of the Hydra and having been killed by the Hydra's blood in his lifetime, such an attack would be crippling if not straight out fatal. As for why not just steal all the other NPs, I would like to point out that Archer was only against Saber and Caster. Saber has four swords for him to choose from, and Caster's true NP is his intellect that resulted in his legend of collecting arrows at Red Cliff, Alcides wouldn't be able to wield Zhuge Liang's intelligence to the same degree, hence there wouldn't be much point in stealing those. Also remember that Rider and Lancer were allies even if they had useful NPs to steal, and Assassin wasn't even anywhere near the main battlefield.

ZeroZen: I'm working on the Servant sheet it's going to be on my profile when I'm done with it :)


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